Magnetism
by beate73
Summary: Love from afar? Not when Edward takes matters into his own hands. But where does that leave Bella and her insecurities? Oh the drama. Warning for lemons. AU. AH. OOC. Pure fluff.
1. Chapter 1

**New A/N: **I caught a major mistake here that messed up a few things later on, mistake fixed - no need to re-read this if you've already read chapter 1.

**A/N: **I could not and would not have done this without Ezzery, Cydryna Marie and monksmama. You girls are my muses, you make me want to write and do my best at it. Thank you for kicking my ass into shape, and this story into an even better shape. Your opinion means the world to me. I bow down to you, and hope I live up to expectations.

**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters.

Here goes nothing...

**BPOV**

I was at Starbucks, having my normal Grande Cappuccino for lunch. Nothing like a caffeine jolt to pick me up for the second half of the day. I was sitting at a table in the back, watching people come and go, when Edward walked into the coffee shop. My heart started thumping hard, and I could hear the blood rush in my ears like it always did when I saw him. I'd had a crush on Edward for as long as I could remember. I had never spoken to him, I didn't have the courage. He didn't know who I was, but it didn't stop me from obsessing with him.

Edward Cullen was every womans wet dream. He was at least 6 foot 4 tall, with wide shoulders and narrow hips. He had long legs and a firm backside. Strong jaw and amazingly big lips that begged to be kissed, vividly green eyes and unruly reddish-brown hair screamed sex. The man always gave me a mini-orgasm when I saw him.

It wasn't just that the man was beautiful, sinfully so, but there seemed to be more behind his womanizing tendencies. Sometimes I got the feeling that there was a whole other person hiding behind his penetrating eyes. A person he did not let the world as a whole see. I wanted that man, the one I knew was behind the façade.

I watched as someone stopped him right inside the door. I recognized her long, blond hair and killer body. Rosalie Hale. I felt my heart sink as Rosalie's arm slipped around Edward. I wanted to look away, but couldn't take my eyes off of them, like a train wreck. I watched as Rosalie leaned closer into Edward and whispered something in his ear. Whatever Rosalie said, made Edward smile. I loved to see Edward smile. It lit up the room like a thousand suns.

Edward was always with someone new. His preference in women seemed to be tall, leggy and blond. And they always looked like they had walked right out of a Victoria's Secret catalog. Just like Rosalie. I knew I could not compare. I was a short brunette, dull compared to all those models. I knew I could hold my own, but Edward was out of my league.

I suddenly felt the need to finish my coffee and get out of Starbucks. I didn't want to be there and watch Edward flirt with Rosalie. Seeing them together always made me feel depressed about myself. To say I didn't like Rosalie because of her relationship with Edward would be the understatement of the year. Envy always reared its ugly head when I saw Rosalie and her perfect body.

I was about to look away when Edward glanced up and locked eyes with me. My breath caught and the room faded away until all I saw was him. I quickly turned my head down and stared at my coffee. I could feel my face burn with a crimson blush. As if by an unknown force, I felt a pull to look up again and I saw Edward leave Rosalie. His eyes locked with mine once more and I was unable to look away. I watched as Edward was coming towards me. My heart was beating like crazy now, and I knew I would start hyperventilating any second now. He leaned down and whispered "meet me outside".

I stopped breathing. I slowly turned my head towards him and what I saw in his eyes, made my heart stop. I lost my words. I didn't know how to speak. All I could do was nod. I watched Edward walk back out without having bought a coffee. _Oh god, _I thought to mind was going a mile a minute. I downed the rest of my coffee and wished it had been something stronger than caffeine. I quickly gathered my things before I had too much time to think about this. Whatever 'this' was.

**EPOV**

I'd had a long and dreary day at the office. I was always at work by five a.m. because I needed the quiet until eight a.m. when everyone else came to work. I wasn't in the habit of going to Starbucks for lunch, but today I needed one of their soothing coffees. I noticed her the moment I stepped into the coffee shop.

Bella Swan.

I had noticed Bella before. Whenever I saw Bella at a function, she was never alone. It wasn't as if she was with a lot of different guys, she always seemed to be with the same guy for a period of time before she changed them in for someone new. She was clearly the serious kind. And she always seemed a little cold and distant. I'd been too intimidated to even talk to her, my ice queen.

But by gods was Bella beautiful. So very unlike the women I was dating. She looked like she would fit me, unlike the women Rose was setting me up with all the time. It hadn't escaped my notice that she seemed to set me up with Rose-look-a-likes. Tall and blond was getting a bit old. This was Los Angeles after all. They were a dime a dozen. And it seemed that Rose knew them all.

I loved Rosalie, but she could not get through her thick scull that she was _not_ my ideal type of woman, and therefore anyone who looked like her wouldn't be either. But Rose always came through for me whenever I needed arm candy for when I had to show my face at any function in LA.

Now Bella, she was one of a kind. She had dark brown hair, a cute nose that went up a bit at the tip, and all the right curves in the right places. Despite seeming distant and unapproachable, when Bella laughed, she seemed to laugh with her whole self. She just seemed to glow. I had fallen in love with her the first time I saw her laugh like that, and I had been unable to get her out of my mind ever since.

What never failed getting to me, was how sad her brown eyes always seemed to be. When she wasn't laughing, it was as if she was holding some deep, dark secret no one else knew about. And that deep, dark secret was what made her so distant to everyone else.

Bella was very intimidating. She seemed so far up away from my reach, it was like she was a mirage. She was in a league of her own, I was left to dream about impossible possibilities. I never had the courage or the balls to talk to her.

Until today.

Catching her trying to be conspicuous while staring at me, made my heart beat a mile a minute. I couldn't take my eyes off of her blushing face when she realized she had been caught. Suddenly she didn't seem so unapproachable. This was my one chance at Bella, and for once she was alone.

Without thinking too hard about it, I had gone up to her and told her to meet me outside. I had no idea what I was going to do with Bella, or what I was going to say to her. It had been an impulse. One that I was starting to regret as I was waiting outside for her. This was my one shot to talk to her, and I was going to blow it.

I was somewhat expecting and somewhat hoping that Bella wouldn't come out. But then the door opened and she was in front of me, looking straight into my eyes, not saying a word. I took a deep breath and grabbed a hold of one of her hands. "Come," was all I was able to get out.

**A/N:** This is short, but a lemon is around the corner, somewhere... Yes, this is SmutVille.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Ezzery, Cydryna Marie and monksmama - thank you for making this a better story. 'Magnestism' would be a shitty story without your help.

**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters.

**BPOV**

Edward grabbed my hand and said 'come', and he just started walking. I fell into step next to him, unable to say anything. I was very aware of him holding my hand, the sensation of his skin against mine was like nothing I'd ever felt before. Every nerve in my hand was buzzing, and I started to imagine that buzzing all over my body. I shook my head and took a deep breath, those were dangerous thoughts. I had to keep my wits about me, I had no idea where Edward was taking me or what he had in mind.

I glanced up at Edward. His profile looked strong and masculine. He was all man. _All mine, _I thought to myself_. _I averted my gaze off of him and stared at the ground in front of me, not seeing where I was going. Where had that thought come from? I didn't know this man. I knew of him, but I didn't _know _him. I sighed quietly, and tried to snap out of it. But with my hand in Edwards, and acutely aware of it, it was hard to think of anything else. I glanced back up at him, wondering what he was thinking. Where was he taking me? I wanted to ask, but I didn't want to be the first one to say anything. I didn't expect it, but this was a comfortable silence.

We turned towards a building. I looked up. There was a doorman in the lobby. This was a pricey part of Los Angeles. I took a quick look around. At least I knew where I was. Edward finally looked at me, one eyebrow cocked, as if asking a question. I gave a small nod, barely visible. I realized this was where he lived, and he was asking me if I wanted to come up. In my weird daze, this was a no-brainer. I didn't want to think too hard about what was about to happen, but I knew I wanted it to happen.

**EPOV**

I was holding on to Bella's hand for dear life. It was the middle of the day, and anyone could see us. Yet she didn't shy away from me. I wanted to laugh, and shout for everyone to hear that Bella was with me. _Hands off everyone, Bella is mine! _Then it hit me, _shit, it's the middle of the day! What am I doing? _But I could not back down now. I'd told Bella to come with me. Backing down now would make Bella feel shot down, and I could not, _would_ _not_ do that to her. I was stealing glances at her, she didn't notice me looking. It looked like she was thinking, I hoped Bella didn't already regret coming with me.

I turned my eyes front and could not stop the smile that was playing with my mouth. The day was young still, I had plenty of time to do plenty of things with Bella before morning arrived.

The walk to my apartment wasn't a long one, and the doorman greeted us silently. The doormen were probably the only people who really knew I didn't bring women back home. Everyone thought I was a playboy, but if people had known the truth, I would have been the laughing stock of town. I did get laid, but never at home, and never with someone as exquisite as Bella.

Once in the elevator I took a closer look at Bella. _Bella Swan. Here. _She didn't look nervous or anything. It didn't look like she had any doubts, but I couldn't help but wonder if I was doing the right thing. We've never even spoken, was I shooting myself in the foot by having sex with Bella before we even had a decent conversation?

**BPOV**

Edward nodded a quick hello to the doorman, and led the way to the elevators. He pulled out a card and swiped it before pushing the 'PH' button. _Penthouse, _I thought to myself, _of course._ The ride up to the top seemed to take forever. My nerves were starting to hit me, but before I could think too hard about it, the elevator pinged and the doors opened up. I didn't notice much of Edward's apartment as his hand left mine, and I felt both his hands slide to my waist. My breath caught when he pulled me close to him and lowered his head to my shoulder. All thoughts left me when I felt his lips on my neck. He'd gone straight for my weak spot, how did he know?

As Edward was working on my neck, I could feel him undress me. The first thing to go, was my dress jacket. Then I felt his fingers work on the buttons of my blouse. As I felt his hands on my skin just beneath the bra, I closed my eyes, just savoring the moment. I let my arms slide up his arms, to his neck, and all the way up to his hair. _Crazy sex hair, _I thought to myself. Edwards hands had stilled on my skin, so I grabbed hard onto his hair and pulled his head up a little. Looking him in the eyes, I brought his lips to mine and attacked them. I couldn't look away from his eyes as he let the kiss deepen.

Kissing Edward like this, just felt right. I didn't know what I had expected, but not this. Not this feeling of being home, in his arms and with his lips on mine. I closed my eyes, I didn't want Edward to read my thoughts. I didn't want him to see my doubts. I was not Edward's type, how could this work? How could he want me beyond tonight? I was so far away from his normal kind of women, I wasn't sure what I was doing with him. I didn't do these things. I didn't go home with men, and I didn't know just to have sex. It just wasn't who I was. But I had been obsessing with Edward for so long, I just could not help myself. I had to know what he would feel like. He was like a drug that was tempting me, and I had to try it just once.

I felt a little calmer. I could do this. I would abandon everything for just few hours with Edward. Just to get him out of my system. Then I would leave him be. I could do that. I just needed to know what this crazy thing I had for Edward was all about, and then I could move on. I wanted one night with Edward so bad, I had no trouble talking myself into this. There was no way in hell I was walking out before I'd explored every inch of Edward.

I let go of Edward's hair. I needed to feel skin, _his skin._ I let my hands slide down his face, down his neck, and to his shoulders. I put my hands beneath his jacket, and felt his muscles. To the eye, Edward really looked lean, but the muscles I felt around his shoulders and down his chest told me the clothes were hiding an incredible body. I pushed off his jacket and started working my way through the buttons of his shirt. As I pushed open his shirt, I took a slow and deep breath. His chest looked even better than it felt. I couldn't resist what was in front of me, so I leaned in and licked one of his pecks, before kissing it. I could feel Edward tense and stand absolutely still. He moaned loudly as I let my teeth graze his nipple.

I felt his hands travel up my back and to my hair, where he took out the bobby pins and let it fall down my back. I let my hands slide down his abs and to the buckle on his belt. I hesitated for a second, looking into his eyes as if to ask permission, then worked quickly on his belt and trousers, satisfied with the look of lust in his face. The pants fell down to his feet in seconds. A current of electricity ignited all over my body as I felt Edward work on the zipper on my skirt.

**EPOV**

I was the luckiest asshole in the world. It was hard to grasp that Bella had come with me willingly. _Bella was here. With me. _I wanted to melt into her and never let go. Bella was so out of my league, I needed to feel her skin to believe she was actually here. This angel was letting me touch her. Kiss her. I could feel my chest tighten with something I didn't recognize. But it felt warm and good. I would take this something and not question it.

I knew Bella probably believed this was something I did all the time. But nothing could have been further from the truth. But I didn't want to ruin right now with talking, we could do that tomorrow. I wasn't the womanizer I was perceived to be because for the longest time now my mind had been set on Bella. Now that she was here in my arms, I could not stop kissing her. I could get lost in her deep pools of chocolate, and when she closed her eyes, I felt a little lost. I felt her hands at the buckle of the belt, and all thoughts left my mind.

Bella had me out of my pants in no time at all. I buried my hands and face in her hair. _God I loved that hair. _But I quickly let go of the hair, I would be back to in soon enough, and worked down the zipper of her skirt. It slid off her with little help, and what I saw stopped my heart from beating for a few seconds. No panties. I gasped. No panties but a garter belt. This woman was going to be the death of me. I moaned loudly as I grabbed her ass and buried my nose back in her hair.

I shivered as I felt Bella tug at my boxers, letting them pool at my feet with the rest of my clothing. I could hear her sigh as she looked down at me. I couldn't help but smirk at her content reaction. I bent down to kiss her, and she wrapped her arms around my neck. I grabbed her ass tighter and lifted her up, I could feel Bella's legs wrap themselves around my back. _She still had her heels on. Yes!_

I carried her to my bedroom and put her down on the edge of the bed. I took a step back to admire Bella. _My Bella. _Her dark hair was fanned out around her head, the bra was giving her pert breasts a nice cleavage, her legs wrapped in stockings held up by the garter belt were going on forever, and the shoes were the perfect touch that made Bella look like a goddess. _My goddess._ I could hardly believe she was here, in my bed, looking like an angel._ My angel._

I wanted to pounce on her, but I didn't want to rush my first time with Bella. If I pounced, it would be over too quickly. She spread her legs for me, and I knelt between her thighs. Resting my weight on my elbows, I leaned down and attacked her mouth. I just didn't want to control the kisses, I wanted to devour her. Bella seemed content with my hard kisses as she moaned loudly, and her arms snaked their way around my neck. I could feel her hands in my hair, tugging hard. I groaned loudly. _That felt almost too good. _Breathing heavily, I forced my body not to move and continued to kiss Bella. _I could kiss her all night, and not come up for air._

Bella's hands left my hair, and slid down to my shoulders and back. Her cool fingers were carefully exploring, it almost felt like torture. I left her mouth, and kissed her chin before working my way down her neck and to her breasts. I buried my nose in her cleavage and took a deep breath. She smelled like flowers on a hot summers night. I felt at peace. I worked her bra off and devoted a lot of time to worshiping her amazingly pert breasts. This woman was nearly 30, but she had the breasts of a 17 year old. I wanted nothing more than to lose myself into the world of her soft mounds, to lick then and bite her hard nipples as I claimed her body as mine.

**BPOV**

Edward was spending a lot of time nibbling, kissing, biting my breasts, and I was growing more and more frustrated. Not that I didn't like nice and slow, but I was getting rather impatient and it was driving me crazy. I wanted to save this for later, right now I just wanted Edward to fuck me already. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and my legs around his hips, then I did a quick twist and had Edward on his back as I was straddling him. I could tell he was surprised, and I couldn't help but feel a little smug. I started to kiss his face, avoiding his lips on purpose. His lips were lethal and they took away my ability to think. I kissed his jaw and worked my way down his neck and to his pecks. I kept on sliding down his torso and kissing my way down to his abs. _God, he had the perfect abs. _I worshiped his navel a little extra before I worked my way down to his hips. I looked at my prize and licked my lips. _He's massive! _I stole a quick look at Edward's face, his eyes were closed and his jaw was tense. I grinned to myself. The power I had over this man was exhilarating.

Not wanting to dive right in, I kissed his hipbone and took a break. I was hovering over his dick, absolutely still I looked at his face. Waiting. When I did nothing, he opened his eyes and looked at me. When I locked my eyes with his, I leaned down and kissed the top of his dick. His beautiful green eyes were nearly black with desire. I kept looking him in the eyes as I took him into my mouth. His breathing hitched right before he groaned, and I wanted to smile wider, which was hard with my mouth full of Edward.

**EPOV**

Bella twisting me over on my back had taken me by surprise. Not that I minded, but when she was down by my dick and absolutely nothing happened, I had to look down. She was waiting for me to look at her. Locking her eyes with mine, she kissed the tip of my dick before she took me in her mouth. I couldn't tear my eyes off of Bella as she sucked, licked and moaned around me. I knew I would cum in no time unless I took control over the situation. I grabbed her hair and gently pulled her off my dick. Moving my hands to her shoulders, I pulled Bella up. _My turn._

I twisted us around, and had Bella pinned underneath me. As I was devouring her lips, I let my hands slide down to her luscious hips, which were starting to gyrate underneath me. I nudged my knee between her thighs, and Bella let her legs slide apart, making room for me. One of my hands left her hip and carefully touched her mound. _Shit! Hairless! _How had I not noticed that before? I groaned loudly in Bella's mouth. She was perfect. I let my thumb between the folds of her sex. She was sopping wet for me. I found her nub and rolled my thumb around it a couple times, making Bella gasp.

She was ready, and I was certainly ready. I knew I was acting kind of adolescent, but right now I didn't care. I had to have her. I had to make her mine right now. I would devote much, much more time on making proper love to Bella just as soon as we got this first time out of the way. I knew I would not be able to last through any lengthy foreplay right now. We did have the rest of the day and the whole night ahead of us. Plenty of time to worship.

I let go of Bella's lips and gave her chin a quick peck. I looked at her face as I got myself in place between her legs. Bella's eyes met mine and I held her gaze as I slowly slipped inside her. _Shit, she was tight! _Once fully inside, I lay still and let her adjust to my size. But the adolescent in me was impatient, so like a schoolboy I started to move in and out of her. Quickly.

**BPOV**

Next to none foreplay. Good, I didn't need it. Not right now. I felt Edward settle between my legs, and I opened up my eyes and looked at him. I felt him enter me, he really was huge, so it took a little while to adjust to him. He didn't give me much time to acclimate before he began moving quickly in and out of me. I grabbed onto his hair and pulled his head down to me, his forehead rested against mine as he pounded on. I had wanted Edward for so long that it didn't take much to reach a shattering orgasm that left me spent. He moved slower in me as I rode out my orgasm, and when I finally relaxed, he sped up. It didn't take long for him to find his release. After he was done, he pulled out, and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close to him.

I buried my face in Edwards chest. I had no idea what to say to him. I realized that only four words had been spoken the entire day. They had been spoken by Edward, I had not uttered one word. I smiled to myself. I guess I didn't need words to communicate with Edward. I snuggled closer to Edward, and felt his arms tighten around me. I let my fingers play slowly with his pecks and he kissed the top of my head. I closed my eyes and relaxed completely into Edward, I hadn't felt this close to someone in too long. I could hear his breathing slow down, and his whole body relaxed. He was asleep. I was nowhere close to being tired, so my mind started to wander. I looked up at Edwards face. He was even more beautiful now that his features were relaxed. I leaned my head down back into his neck, and took a deep breath. He smelled divine, like honey and forest.

Then all my insecurities started to creep in. What on earth was I doing here? This couldn't last. This _wouldn't _last. He was so far out of my league, I was reaching for the stars. I had given myself permission to be here with Edward until tomorrow morning, but could I do it? Suddenly this whole situation felt all wrong. If I stayed here and enjoyed Edward some more, I would not be able to let go when the morning came. He would discard me, but I would be stuck. My heart could not take that kind of abuse. No, I had to let go, now.

Feeling weighed down by my realization, I took another deep breath, memorizing his smell. It wasn't easy, but I untangled myself from Edward's body. Out of his arms, I took a long look at him before leaning down to give his lips a quick kiss. I sighed and got out of the bed. It wasn't easy to turn my back on Edward, but I did it. I walked out of his bedroom and went looking for my clothes. Once I was fully dressed, I let myself quietly out of his apartment. Thank goodness the elevator didn't 'ping' when it arrived, I didn't want to risk anything waking Edward up. Inside the elevator I turned around and took one last look at his apartment as the doors closed, and the carriage took me down to the ground floor, as my heart filled with longing and despair. What had I done?

**A/N:** Reviews are highly appreciated by a newbie. Thank you for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **This was not an easy chapter to write, I was even considering pulling this story and proclaim myself defeated. But a little help goes a long way. Ezzery - thank you for getting me un-stuck when I was about to lose my mind. monksmama - without you nudging me in the right direction and cheering me on, I don't think I would have been able to do this. Cydryna Marie - I've missed you girl, hope life doesn't hold you hostage for too long. To everyone who's reviews, you've made me squee and giggle like a schoolgirl - THANK YOU!

**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters.

**EPOV**

It was getting dark when I woke up, I hadn't felt so rested in forever. It took a few moments for everything to come back to me. _Bella. _Where was she? I looked around. She was probably in the bathroom. I stretched my body and grinned at the sore muscles. As I lay waiting in bed, I noticed that there were no sounds coming from the bathroom. Puzzled, I got out of bed and walked over to the bathroom, and knocked on the door, still no response. I opened the door slightly while calling her name, "Bella?" The bathroom was empty. I felt my stomach drop.

_She could be in the living room. or in the kitchen. _Hoping against hope, I quickly put on a pair of boxers, and ran out of the bedroom. I was starting to feel frantic now. I called her name again, "Bella," only louder than before. Both the kitchen and the living room were empty. My heart thudded as I ran through the whole apartment again. _Bella was gone!_

Back in the living room I finally stopped in the middle of the room, and it hit me full force, making me wobble, Bella was really gone. She'd left. Without a word. I hung my head and felt my knees weaken, why hadn't I said anything to her? I'd had plenty of time to talk to her, both before and after I slept with her. But like an idiot, I hadn't. Figuring the whole 'no talking' deal was sexy, but it hadn't been sexy, it had been a disaster!

I straightened my spine, this was fixable. I was going to fix this. Not talking had been the dumbest thing I'd done in my short time with Bella, I would not make the same mistake again. I would talk to her and find out what exactly made her leave like that. Unless this was all she wanted from me, just a quick rump in the bed... _No! Stop thinking stupid things!_

Not wanting to think about Bella being gone, I thought about seeing Bella at Starbucks earlier today. _God she had looked beautiful! _Her blush had been magnificent when I had caught her staring at me. I couldn't help but smile at that memory. My heart had jumped in anticipation when I had grabbed her hand. On the walk to my place, my heart had been beating erratically in anticipation. I remembered the way Bella had looked, laying naked in my bed. She had been gorgeous. Magnificent. Our first time together hadn't exactly been adventurous, but it had been the most intense and most satisfying experience of my life. Bella in my arms, _she just fit._

I looked at the clock, it was too late to do anything right now, but I would prepare for a casual encounter with Bella tomorrow.

**BPOV**

I had walked home. Turned out I didn't live that far from Edward. Who knew? I looked around my own apartment. It was a shoe box compared to Edward's place. But I was happy here, _wasn't I?_ It fit my needs perfectly, and it was a safe haven hiding me from the rest of the world. Now that I was home, I allowed myself to think about this afternoon's events. Had I really just had casual sex with Edward Cullen? _Oh god! _I was mortified. What had I done? I would have to face this man around town. He would look at me and he would know! I felt my face burning scarlet. He was so out of my league!

I got off my sofa and started pacing, twirling strands of my hair. _But then again, he did ask me to come with him, did he not? _I stopped in my tracks. Had I been some kind of bet? Rosalie Hale had been at the coffee shop today. Had she challenged him to sleep with me? I groaned loudly, and started to pace again. I could only hope and pray Rosalie had nothing to do with this. I was freaking out, and my imagination tended to run away with me when I went into a frenzy like this.

_Shit! _I was such an idiot for not talking to Edward first about this. I had nothing solid, only my imagination and a lot of guesswork. There had been time to talk before I slept with Edward, and had I stuck around instead of running away in a panic, I could've talked to him after to find out what our encounter had been all about. Not knowing was going to drive me crazy. I needed to know, but I could not talk to Edward after running away like a coward. How could I face him now?

Top of my list was not running into Edward. I just couldn't face him. I had to shake up my routine a bit. Most of the times I saw Edward, was at Starbucks. There wasn't another one close enough to work, so I would have to change my lunch hour. If I changed it to later, I would still risk running into him if he decided to wait around for me. No, I would have to do lunch earlier. That way I would be out of there before he had his lunch. Having a lunch plan made me feel a little better. With most of my nerves under control, I realized I still had a few hours to kill before bedtime. I pulled out my laptop and booted it up, might as well get my mind off of Edward by doing some work.

Being a Hollywood manager kept me busy. I had a select clientele, high profile and very demanding. I had worked hard to get where I was. I had slaved for big names on the management side of the business, until I had learned all I could learn. Then I had started working for myself, only bringing one client with me from my old employer. Alice Brandon, pixie movie starlet. She had quickly made a name for herself, with my help of course. When I was leaving to work on my own, she had declared she'd be nowhere without me, and she was not about to quit a winning team. So she came with, and I had been very grateful. Alice had helped me to catch some of the biggest names, she might not be anything without me, but I certainly would have been nowhere without her. She had singlehandedly helped me secure Jasper Whitlock and Emmett McCarty.

Jasper was the all around entertainer, and had quickly risen to every teenage girl's wet dream. He was young enough looking to do all the teen movies, and he also had a couple albums under his belt. He was swoon-worthy. But he and Alice also had a 'thing' going on. Masters at hiding their relationship, it was still a secret from most of the world.

Emmett had been a football-player in high school. An knee injury deemed him unfit for football for the rest of his life, so he turned to his other passion, acting. Alice and Emmett being old childhood friends, she had begged me to take him on as a client. Alice being Alice had made it impossible for me to turn her down, and Emmett had proven to be perfect. He was getting plenty of work, but he yet had to land a starring role. He was hard working, always on time, and a real gentleman, so why bigger roles were avoiding him, was a bit of a puzzle to me.

Before turning off the computer, I took a quick look at my schedule. I had a meeting first thing with Alice, we were shopping around for a new agent and she had a list of people she would like to work with. It was going to be an interesting meeting, Alice was pretty set when she had made up her mind, and my job coaxing her to the best decision for her career was going to be a tough one. I wondered who she had put down on her list, I knew about a couple agents I would love for her to work with.

I slept uneasily that night, and was not in the best of moods when I walked into my office. I made my way over to the kitchenette to make myself a steaming cup of tea before Alice arrived. Caffeine this early would not be good for my jittery nerves, so I settled for some herbal tea. On my way to my corner office all the way in the back, I looked at the watch. Still some time before the meeting. I booted up my computer to check my e-mails before the force of nature that was Alice showed up.

I sat back in my chair and sighed. Nothing in the e-mails needed my immediate attention. I didn't want to start any work until after Alice left. With her, it was never easy to know how long the meeting would last, or where we would end up. Alice had a desperate need to spend money, and she was always out shopping. When she set her mind on me coming with, it was close to impossible to deny her. I took a sip of my now cooled down tea, and my mind wandered to yesterday's events. I cringed when I thought about how I'd left Edward without a word. But it had seemed right at the time, not a word had been spoken between us while we were together, so I saw no reason to leave any words behind when I left. _Would I come to regret it?_

I shook my head to get this thread of thoughts off my mind, and checked the clock for what seemed the thousandth time this morning. _Just a little bit more, Bella, then distraction in the form of Alice will be here, just a little bit more. _No sooner had I thought this thought, when I heard a trilling laughter down the hall. I smiled a little as Alice whirled into my office, "Good morning, Bella!"

"Good morning, Alice," I replied as I got up and walked around the desk to give Alice a hug. Alice was very touchy-feely so the hug could not be avoided.

Alice took a step back and looked intensely at me, "Why the sad face? Actually, you look like hell," she said as she looked me up and down. Alice never edited her thoughts, she always blurted out what was on her mind.

I looked at her, not sure what to say. I had dressed immaculately and hadn't expected anyone to notice anything. I took a deep breath, "Well, I'm fine. Just have a lot on my mind, is all." I walked back around the desk and sat down in my chair, "You want to get started?"

Alice hopped into one of the chairs sitting in front of my desk, and threw her purse in the other. "Well, Bella. I have been thinking a lot about what agents there are here in town, and I have really narrowed it down to only one. There is only one person I want to work with, the only person who is powerful enough to get me the type of roles I want. There is only one person for this job," she went quiet and looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to ask excitedly who she was talking about.

"Who is the one person you want to work with, Alice?" I asked, trying to sound at least a little interested.

"There is really only one name in the business that has that kind of respect, Bella. I thought you would've guessed it by now." I looked at her quizzically, who was she talking about? Then it hit me, and my stomach plummeted. _No. There's just no way... _"Edward Cullen, silly!" Yep, there it was.

**EPOV**

I was running late. I was never late for anything, but thoughts of Bella had kept me up most of the night, causing me to oversleep this morning. I tore out of the garage in my Volvo, barely missing the car coming around the corner. I shrugged my shoulders at the almost accident, and stepped on the accelerator. I made my way through town, and was in Beverly Hills in no time. I handed my car over to the valet, and ran to the elevator. I was late for my morning meeting, which would make me late for my meeting with Rose, which again would make me late for Starbucks and running 'accidentally' into Bella.

I was looking for new clients, so today's staff meeting was an important one. We had to let go of some clients, they were just not living up to our standards. If you wanted me and my people to be good agents and get you good jobs, showing up for work on time and giving your absolute best was a minimum. Unfortunately, that was rare in Hollywood. Most actors and actresses were divas and high on their fame, and just didn't bother showing up at all some days. So I had to let some people go. What we wanted, what we _needed _was clients who would understand how much work we put into their careers, and really appreciate it. So we were looking.

Before we even started discussing who we wanted to work with, I made it clear to my staff what kind of people we wanted to talk to. This was after all, our reputation at stake. With a bad rep, you got bad clients who didn't work much, and money stopped coming in, which in the end meant we couldn't keep the business afloat.

"Look people, we have room for at least two new clients. Once they're in, and working, we can look for more. But as of right now, we need two." I looked especially to Tanya Denali and Mike Newton. They were my top agents and headhunters. They had been with me the longest, and they knew what I was looking for. But I still liked to remind them.

I wrapped up the meeting and looked at my watch. I had caught up on some time, and wasn't running as behind schedule as I feared I would be. I left the meeting room and walked to my office to grab my things. On the way out again, I stopped by my secretary's desk, "Jessica, I'll be out for the rest of the day. Please take messages, and only forward calls that are life threatening," she knew of course that I meant that only the most important calls were to come through to me. Nothing literal. Jessica Stanley was not a dumb secretary, or she would not have lasted long working for me.

As I walked out, the valet had the car ready for me. I drove over to Starbucks for a quick meeting with Rosalie. My mind wasn't on Rose and whatever she would be whining about today, I was playing out in my mind possible scenarios of 'running into' Bella. I was giving the whole thing with Bella too much thought. There were so many unknowns when it came to her, that there was just no way of knowing what exactly would happen. I knew I needed to let go and just play it by ear, but it was difficult.

I found a parking spot close by, and made my way to Starbucks. I let my eyes sweep the place as I walked in, no sign of Bella. Good, I was a little early, so she would have no chance of skipping out on me while I talked to Rose. I spotted Rose at the table Bella had been sitting at yesterday. Only she was sitting with her back to the door, which meant I would be facing the door, giving me perfect view of who was coming and going at all times. I put my hand on Rose's shoulder and gave her a quick peck on her cheek, "Hey Rose, what's up?"

**BPOV**

Alice wanted Edward Cullen as her agent. Of course I knew he was the top guy in the business, but just the thought of having to call his office and talk to him, and work with him made me panic. I couldn't do this. I couldn't face him after yesterday.

"Alice, darling, are you sure?" Then something I'd heard hit me, "You know he doesn't take on any new clients, it's almost to impossible to get him to represent you. Do you have any alternates we could talk to as well?" _Please say yes, please say yes, plea..._

"Silly Bella, haven't you heard?" I felt my stomach plummet even further down, I shook my head, waiting for Alice to continue. "He's gotten rid of few of the actors he's been representing. They didn't show up for work and did a lousy job, so now he's looking for new blood."

I took a deep breath, "All right, so he's looking for new blood. But we need to keep our options open, who else do you have on your list?"

Alice just grinned, "I have no one else. I want to work with Edward Cullen who's the best. Talking to second best is a waste of time. Besides, both Jasper and Emmett could do with a new agent. You could offer us up as a packaged deal." Clearly she had thought a lot about this.

I took another deep breath, and looked at Alice. I knew she wanted this, and I knew she needed this. Her last agent had fucked up and had cost her two starring roles in what turned out to be two huge blockbusters. I nodded, "Fine, I'll talk to Cullen."

Alice let out a loud squeal and jumped out of her chair, "Thank you Bella! Oh this is going to be so good!" She was all over the place, clapping her hands and literally jumping up and down. Without a warning, she calmed down and looked intently at me, "You know... You and Cullen would be a perfect match."

I had been taking a sip of my tea, and nearly spluttered it all out on my desk, "What makes you say that?"

She looked at me with a gleam in her eyes, "It's just one of those things I just know. You'd be a perfect match both in looks and in personality."

I felt the crimson rise in my cheeks, "Alice, first of all, he likes tall, leggy and blond. Second of all, I'm not looking for a relationship, and third of all, who's to say he's not an ass?"

Alice just laughed her tinkling laughter, "Oh Bella, you're too adorable. The blond bombshell thing he has going on is just a show. He's unattached, so he's doing the stereotype thing when he's on the red carpet. You don't know Cullen, so how can you say he's an ass? And even if you don't want to admit it, you're always looking for that someone special. We all are. We just don't like to say it out loud, not even to ourselves."

She had a point there. I couldn't deny that. But I wasn't going to give into her, "Alice, I'll talk to Cullen, I'll work with him, but I will have nothing to do with him outside of him being your agent. If you in any way try to set me up with him, if you ignore my wishes, then I think it's time for you to find new management."

"Whoa, Bella. Don't you think that's a little harsh? You don't even know Cullen, who's to say you two won't hit it off on your own? And how can you tell me to find a new manager after what we've achieved together?" I hadn't seen it before, but Alice's eyes were brimming over with tears. I had hurt her.

"Alice, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that," I rubbed my forehead, "it's just that mixing business and pleasure is a terrible idea. It never works out. And the one suffering for it in the end, would be you. I just don't want to do that." _Nice save, Bella!_

Alice looked at me and nodded, "Fine, I won't set you up. I won't meddle at all. But if you do hit it off, just promise me you'll think about it."

I sighed, "Fine, I'll think about it." She didn't need to know that I'd already 'hit it off' with Edward and that it had been a disaster. And thinking of disasters, how was I going to pull this off? Then a new thought hit me, was he going to think I slept with him only to get him to take on Alice, and maybe Jasper and Emmett, as clients? _Oh, god, what a train wreck._

I looked at the clock, I had to get going if I wanted to make it in and out of Starbucks early. I was going to avoid Edward today, as planned, I would deal with approaching him as an agent tomorrow. I just couldn't deal today. "Hey, Alice. I'm on my way for lunch at Starbucks, wanna come with?"

"Maybe next time, Bella, I've had all the caffeine I can handle today. I also saw this gorgeous dress on my way here that I want to take a closer look at. Maybe you should come with me?"

I quickly shook my head, "I can't today, Alice. I'm just making a quick pit stop at the coffee shop, then I have to come back here and attack the pile of work that is waiting for me."

Her face dropped for a split second, but then she gave me a bright smile, "That's all right, we'll go shopping later." I grabbed my purse and walked out of the office with Alice. Time for an early lunch.

**EPOV**

I kept looking at the door every time someone walked through it, and I kept on looking at my watch. Bella should have been here by now, what was holding her up? Rose noticed I was absentminded and was giving me weird looks, "What is it Rose? Why are you looking at me like that?"

She gave a short chuckle, "Because you're so distracted, I could get you to sign away your life right about now."

I looked away from the door, and stared at Rose, "I'm sorry, my mind is elsewhere today."

She just shrugged, "It's either work or a woman. And from the way you keep staring at the door, I'd say it's a woman. It wouldn't happen to be Bella Swan, would it?"

I felt my heart speed up, how had she nailed it? "How do you know?"

"Oh please! Bella came in earlier than she usually does, which is strange in itself. But she was jittery and kept looking towards the door, as if she was afraid of someone in particular walking in. She didn't stay her usual hour, she left after only 20 minutes – making it even stranger. Considering your eyes are practically glued to the door, I'd guess she was avoiding you."

Damn, Rosalie was too perceptive for her own good. For _my _own good. I ran my hands through my hair, making it stand on end in all directions, "We hooked up last night, and she walked out while I was sleeping. I just wanted to talk to her." I looked at Rose, pleading with my eyes not to give me a hard time about this.

Rose looked at me for the longest time before saying anything at all, "You've got it bad for Bella Swan." She stated it just like that, and she was dead on. I didn't even bother replying, Rose knew she was right, no need to confirm or deny anything.

"Damn, I wish I'd thought about asking Bella for her number or address or something like that," I couldn't believe basics like that had evaded me.

Rosalie smirked, "Edward, you know she's in management in this town, how hard can she be to find?" Not too hard, I hoped.

I looked at Rose, "I'm not going back to the office today, and I don't feel like bumming around home, what say we go out for drinks later?"

"What about Bella?"

"I'll do some research tomorrow at the office. Tonight I just want to get a drink and talk to a good friend. What do you say, good friend?"

Rose laughed at that, "Sure, good friend, let's go out for a few drinks."

I left Rose shortly after that, and went and sat in my car, my mind back with Bella. I suddenly felt a wave of frustration and anger surge through me, and in that angered frustration I repeatedly slammed my fists into the steering wheel. Before I had the chance to calm down, the bloody airbag blew up in my face, leaving me stunned for all of 5 seconds. "WHAT THE FUCK?!" This was just perfect. A perfect ending to a day that sucked more ass each minute that went by. _Fuck! _Now I had to get the bloody car towed and fixed. As I calmed down a little, I noticed a couple guys on the sidewalk, howling with laughter at me. I felt my face pull into a small smile, this was probably the most idiotic thing I had ever done, only second to the mess I had created with Bella.

**BPOV**

Rosalie Hale had looked at me strangely today. She must've noticed my weird behavior. I had been jumpy the whole time I was at Starbucks, so pretty much anyone would have given me a strange look today. But Rosalie had had a knowing look in her eyes. As if she knew something I didn't. _Oh no, she must've thought about the bet. _I was pretty sure it was a bet. What else could it be?

Sitting alone at my desk in my office, I allowed myself to think about yesterday. I let my mind dwell on how Edward's kisses had a sweet taste, how he smelled like honey and spice, and how he had felt. I groaned silently, he had a magnificent body, just enough bulge in just the right places, just perfectly toned. And I thought about how he had felt inside of me. I sat up, suddenly jolted from my daydream about Edward.

A new thought hit me, and I felt myself go cold. Edward hadn't been using a condom. And I had been off the pill for a while due to a bad reaction to the pills. "Oh. My. God," I groaned, and started to hyperventilate. That would be just _perfect!_ I hoped to all the gods out there that it would not happen. It _could _not happen. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" I got back up and started to pace back and forth, faster than before. Great, things were just peachy when I started talking out loud to myself. "Fucking great!"

**A/N:** I want to thank you for reading. I know it's not always easy to leave a review, I'm guilty of that myself sometimes. But if you're reading this story, it's all that counts - it's what my goal is anyway.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Tempertantrums this time weren't too bad, not threats to quit *laughs*. Again, I could not have done this without my girls, Ezzery, monksmama, Cydryna Marie - your input has been priceless. Some stuff would have been halfassed guesswork on my part without you. If you're reading this, and haven't yet read my girls' stories, you are missing out.

**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters.

**EPOV**

After the disaster with me taking it out on my car and having it towed, it had taken me a few hours to sort it all out and make my way home. I walked into my apartment and first thing checked my messages. It was futile to wish Bella had called, I doubted she had my number, and I _seriously_ doubted she'd call after walking out on me like that. I went into my bedroom and avoided looking at the bed. I went straight for my closet and got out the clothes I'd need for tonight before heading for the bathroom and a quick shower. I didn't have much time before I had to meet up with Rosalie.

As I walked out of the bathroom, drying my hair with a towel, I stopped at the foot of the bed. In my mind's eye I saw me and Bella on the bed, I relived every second. _God she had been wonderful. _I snapped myself out of the memory and got dressed quickly. _Can't keep Rose waiting, she'll have my balls served up on a platter. _Better be early than awaken the beast that sometimes took over my friend. She just hated sitting around alone waiting for her party. Rose would never admit to it, but it made her feel insecure.

Finding myself as a walking man in Los Angeles, I had no other option but to call a cab. There hadn't been enough time today to sort out any rentals, but I kept telling myself that I wouldn't have to look for parking today. A meager consolation for someone who liked to dub themselves for a speed demon.

When I got to the bar, it was fairly crowded. It was a tiny place in Hollywood, but it was always packed. It didn't take long to locate Rose, she was sitting at a table in the corner all the way in the back. But considering how small this bar was, it didn't take many strides to get to the table. "Hello darling," I said as I kissed her cheek. She just glared at me, making me glance down at my watch. _Shit! 10 minutes late. _"I'm so sorry I'm late, I had an incident with my car, and it got me running late," I tried to explain.

"What kind of incident?" Rose looked skeptical.

I glanced up at her, before I looked down at my hand picking at the tablecloth, "I was feeling kinda...frustrated earlier. And I kinda took it out on my car," I looked her in the eyes, "making the airbag blow up in my face."

It took a few seconds for the visual to sink in with Rose, but once it did, she erupted in laughter, leaning over the table. Once she was done laughing, she looked at me with the biggest grin I'd seen in a while, "I forgive you for being late. This time. Because this shit? You'll never live it down." Great, I would be the joke of the party with Rosalie around.

A couple hours and many, many drinks later, our conversation steered towards Bella and her spending the night, or rather, the day with me.

**BPOV**

Jacob Black had called me again. Begging for a date. He had been my arm candy a couple times on bigger Hollywood events, but had been wanting to take me out on a 'proper' date. I didn't want to spend another night at home, moping over walking out on Edward, so I gave in. I was all dressed and ready to be picked up by Jacob, but he was running late. I sat in my sofa, and stared at the clock on the TV, wondering why I even bothered to go out with Jacob. It wasn't as if it would go beyond tonight's date. I just didn't like Jacob enough to take it anywhere.

The doorbell rang, and I got up off the sofa. I took a quick look in the mirror in the hallway, before opening up the door, "Hi, Jake."

"Bella, you look amazing!" Jacob looked me up and down with lust in his eyes. But I knew he would not act on his want for me, he was too much of a gentleman for that. I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before grabbing my clutch and locking the door.

"Where are we going?" I asked Jacob as he lead me down to a waiting cab.

"I know of a small bar that is kind of nice, they serve any drink you can think of and lighter meals if you're hungry". I just nodded in agreement. I wasn't hungry, but I really could use a drink right about now. Maybe that's what I needed to get 'stuff' off my mind.

I had been in deep though on the cab ride over, and hadn't paid attention to where we were going. I looked around as I got out of the cab, we were in Hollywood. I sighed, why didn't that surprise me? I knew Jake was a bit of a social climber, taking me to Hollywood in the hopes of running into someone important was probably part of the game. He put his hand on my lower back and guided me towards a tiny bar. When we got to the door, it was so packed with people, it was almost impossible to get in.

We managed to squeeze in and were making our way towards the back, when I noticed familiar hair in the crowd. What were the odds? I watched Edward as he leaned down to Rosalie. _Who else? _Before I could look away, Rose locked her eyes with me. I stopped dead in my tracks, there was something in her eyes, making it impossible for me to tear my eyes away. As I watched on, she grabbed Edward's neck and pulled him down for a kiss. My heart stopped and I couldn't breathe. I watched as he grabbed her waist and kissed her back. At that moment, I turned around and struggled my way out of the bar. Once outside in the fresh air, I hailed a cab and made my way home. Jacob forgotten.

**EPOV**

I had kissed Rose back before I remembered who I was with. I pulled back from Rose and realized just how much alcohol I'd had. I never let something like this happen with Rosalie. We just were not right for each other. I knew she would not mind taking our relationship further, but I didn't want to lose a good friend over something I knew would not work out. "Rose? What are you doing?" I asked as I got my wits about me.

She shrugged and looked sweetly at me, "Nothing, just felt like a kiss." I looked at her, then turned around to walk out of the bar. We'd been here a few hours, and it was time to go home and get some sleep. Tomorrow was another day at the office. As I was walking and thinking about Rosalie's smug look, I noticed brown hair on a familiar frame. _Bella... _I looked back at Rose, then at Bella's retreating form, and it clicked. _Shit! Bella had seen the kiss! _I left Rose behind as I tried to run out of the bar, which was impossible with all the people packed into the place. I saw Bella drive off in a cab as I made it outside. _Fuck!_

Rose was right on my heels, and I turned towards her, murder in my eyes, "Did you just kiss me because Bella was watching?!?"

She looked a little taken back, "How did you...."

I cut her off, "Oh save it, Rosalie! Why did you have to be such an ass when you knew I desperately wanted to talk to Bella? Now she'll never even look at me! Shit!" I had to walk away from Rose. I was not one for hurting women, but right now I was so angry there could always be a first time.

"Edward..."

"Don't," I turned to look at her, letting her see the disgust in my eyes, "I don't want to talk to you right now. I thought you were my friend," I turned at the last word and started to walk away.

"Edward! I did it because she's all wrong for you!" I paused in my tracks, but squared my shoulders and walked away.

**BPOV**

My phone rang as I walked into my apartment. I looked down, Jacob. I had forgotten all about him until now, but I was not in the mood to talk to him, or anyone else for that matter, so I turned off the phone. I'd deal with him later.

I got out of my clothes and threw on a tank top and a pair of yoga pants. I needed to be comfortable for my wallowing. I walked into the kitchen and made myself a steaming cup of tea and brought it out to the living room. I sat down on the sofa and allowed the emotions to take over. I felt a sharp pain inside of me, and the tears just flowed over. I pulled up my knees and rested my forehead on them. Why was I feeling so strongly about Edward and Rosalie kissing? For all I knew, they were together. There wasn't any evidence telling otherwise, I always saw them together. And if Edward wasn't with Rosalie, he was always with someone who looked like her. It was obvious that when he couldn't have her, he went for the look-a-like. As I sat there, sobbing, my belief that Edward sleeping with me had been a bet, got firmer. The thought of being a laughing stock like that, got a new round of sobs out of me. How could I have been so stupid?

Then I remembered that I needed to talk to him on Alice's behalf the next day, and I felt like throwing up. _I can't do this. There is just no way..._ Would Alice understand when I told her the whole story? I had no other choice but to come clean, and pray she would not kill me.

**EPOV**

I was a little hungover from yesterday's alcohol consumption, and it didn't help that I hadn't gotten much sleep last night either. I was sitting at my desk, expecting a quiet day when the phone rang. I didn't recognized the number, so I took a deep breath, willing the headache away, "Cullen Inc, Edward Cullen speaking."

"_Mr. Cullen? This is Bella Swan speaking. I've heard through the grapevine that your company is looking for new clients to represent. I have people who are very interested in working with you, and we would like to take a meeting with you."_

I was stunned into silence, and nearly forgot how to talk, I had to pull my thoughts together quickly before she hung up on me, "Uh... Yeah..." _smooth Cullen!, _"Yes we're looking for new clients. But we're particular about who we represent..." _Why had I said that? _I didn't want to scare her away.

"_Yes, we're aware of the fact that you hardly take on new clients," _she sounded snippy, _"but what we were hoping for, was a meeting to see if your company working for my clients would be doable." _Yes, definitely snippy.

"Miss Swan, we'll be happy to take a meeting with you and your clients, why don't I patch you over to my secretary so she can help you with setting an appointment?" It was a bad save, but it was a save non the less. When Bella agreed, I patched her through to Jessica to set up the actual appointment before I messed up even more. As I hung up with Bella, I leaned back in my chair. All thoughts of hangovers and headaches gone, Bella would be coming here, I had to make sure I would get some one on one time with her.

**BPOV**

I was at the office early next morning. So far I had managed to avoid talking to Jacob, I would have to deal with him later. I had another pressing matter that needed all my attention first. I had to call Edward about a meeting. I turned my Rolodex until I found the letter 'C', and thumbed through the business cards until I found his. I'd had it for ages, but I never thought I'd need it.

I took out the card and held it in my hand for what seemed like an eternity, just staring at the letters, not thinking about anything. For the first time in a few days, my mind was blissfully silent. I took a deep breath and leaned back in my chair. I would need to call him soon, but I had no idea what I was going to say to him. How do you talk to the man you slept with a few days ago, but never actually spoke with?

I sighed loudly, and leaned forward, resting my head on my desk, business card still in hand. I turned my head slightly and looked at the number on the card, stretching out my hand slightly, I grabbed the phone. I dialed the number on the card before I had too much time to think about it. _Might as well just jump into it and see how it goes._

"_Cullen Inc, Edward Cullen speaking."_

Crap! It was a direct number to him. I had been hoping someone else would pick up the phone and set up the appointment, well, it was now or never, "Mr. Cullen? This is Bella Swan speaking. I've heard through the grapevine that your company is looking for new clients to represent. I have people who are very interested in working with you, and we would like to take a meeting with you." I tried to sound as detached as possible.

"_Uh... Yeah... Yes we're looking for new clients. But we're particular about who we represent..."_

He must have not expected my call, it actually sounded like he was surprised I called him. _Hold on... _Did he just sound like he didn't even want to talk about maybe being an agent for my clients? I felt the coldness creep into my voice, "Yes, we're aware of the fact that you hardly take on new clients, but what we were hoping for, was a meeting to see if your company working for my clients would be doable." I was starting to feel really angry.

"_Miss Swan, we'll be happy to take a meeting with you and your clients, why don't I patch you over to my secretary so she can help you with setting an appointment?" _He sounded distant and uninterested, and patched me over to his secretary as soon as possible. He clearly didn't want to talk to me. The whole conversation made me cringe, and I was more sure than ever that sleeping with me had been a bet or something to that effect.

After making the appointment, I quickly hung up the phone, and turned my chair so that my back was towards the desk. I felt a sob press through my throat, and hot tears were overflowing my eyes. This had been the worst phone conversation I had ever had. I felt like an idiot for falling into Edward's trap.

The rest of the week went by in a haze, and I couldn't remember much of it other than the wreck that had been my conversation with Edward. I couldn't remember talking to either Alice, Emmett or Jasper, but they arrived at my office a couple weeks later before the meeting with Cullen Inc to talk strategy. Having all three of them in my office snapped me out of the haze I had been in.

"Hey guys," I greeted them.

Emmett gave me a bone-crushing hug, he was such a teddy bear, and completely unaware of his own strength, "Can't. Breathe" I gasped, which only made him laugh before he let me go. Jasper was much gentler, but his hug held just as much intensity as Emmett's. Alice simply flung herself at me, nearly toppling me over, making the boys laugh at us.

"Oh Bella, you did it! You got us an appointment with Cullen!" she squealed, jumping up and down while clapping her hands. I looked at her, she was a little too excited about this. But maybe it was just me who wasn't excited enough for the three of them. If Cullen Inc took them on, they would have a very powerful agent backing their careers. For the first time in days, a sincere smile grazed my lips.

**EPOV**

I looked at my hands. They were trembling. My hands never tremble. But today Bella was coming in, she would bring in potential clients, and she would be here. I knew that from a strategy point of view, I should bring Tanya and Mike with me to the meeting, but I wanted to have my first meeting with Bella alone.

I stared out the window in my office, reliving my few hours with Bella for the millionth time. Seeing Bella, and talking to her, I wanted our first time talking to be about us, but she was bringing business instead. I sighed and cracked my neck, getting the satisfying popping sound, and tried to focus on the task at hand, business. I had to admit, I was a little curious about who she would bring, I knew she was Alice Brandon's manager, and we were definitely interested in Alice, but who else did she have up her sleeve?

I was about to find out as Jessica came in and announced that my appointment was waiting for me in the conference room.

**BPOV**

A blond and leggy secretary showed us in to a big and fancy conference room, what was it with Edward Cullen and leggy, blond women? I sighed, and pushed that thought out of my head. I was here to negotiate for Alice, Jasper and Emmett. We'd all agreed the day before that Cullen Inc would get all three or none at all. They were a packaged deal. I looked at each one of them, they were so much more than clients to me. They were friends, the closest thing I had to family in this town. I could not let them down.

As I was giving them a bright and confident smile, the door opened up and Edward walked in. I felt my smile fade to something smaller as Edward approached me first, hand outstretched.

"Good morning, it's good to see you," he greeted as he looked me straight in the eyes. I could feel the heat rise in my cheeks. I just nodded as I cast down my eyes and pulled my hand away from his. I was afraid that if I said anything, it would come out all squeaky and weird.

I sat down again in my chair as Edward went around the table and sat down on the other side. He picked up a pen and tapped it on the legal pad in front of him, looking from Alice to Jasper, to Emmett and then to me. I could almost see the wheels turn in his head.

"So you've heard through the grapevine that we're looking for new clients," Edward stated as he looked at me.

"Yes, I was told that you recently had to let some clients go, and we thought it would be a good idea to approach Cullen Inc before everyone else heard of this and came knocking on your door." I knew I didn't sound very professional, but it was all I could think of to say.

Edward just smiled and leaned back in his chair, looking at the four of us, "It's still not yet public knowledge that we're looking for new clients to represent, so you're well ahead in the game, Ms. Swan."

He paused and looked thoughtfully at me, "I figured you would bring Alice Brandon with you today, but I have to admit, I did not expect to see Whitlock and McCarty here." He looked at the boys, "I have to say, Ms. Swan, you bring interesting prospects with you, but we're only looking for one new client, two at most."

I looked at Alice, Emmett and Jasper, who were all looking at Edward, and I took a deep breath. This was what we had suspected, and I was glad we had prepared before this meeting, "I was worried you might say that, Mr. Cullen, but Alice, Jasper and Emmett are all either in demand or quickly getting there, and they come as a packaged deal. I'm afraid it's all of them or none of them. If you're interested, of course." I didn't mean to sound so cold, but I couldn't help it.

**EPOV**

I didn't' want for it to be so, but obviously Bella held some resentment towards me. Did she regret sleeping with me? Or was it seeing Rosalie kissing me that had her in a twist? I hoped it was the latter. That could be explained. If she regretted sleeping with me, it would make talking to her privately that much harder.

"It's a very tempting deal, Ms. Swan, but I have to consider the workload of my staff and myself. We simply cannot take on more than we can handle," I looked at the quartet, it was tempting to take on all three actors. They were all known for being at work on time, and there was never any drama with any of them. But I hadn't been lying to Bella, I did have to consider the workload of those working for me.

Had it been just me, I would have signed all three actors right off the bat. All of them were exactly what we were looking for, that, and I would be guaranteed to work with Bella. But I just couldn't. I had to talk to the others and see who besides Mike and Tanya could take on another case. We were looking for long term representation, and I wasn't about letting anyone do a halfassed job, so I could not just sign them on.

Satisfied that I hadn't messed up the meeting too much, I let my mind wander back to Bella. I now had her office number, and decided to call her secretary before she made it back, and get her home address. I wanted to surprise Bella when she got back home after work today.

**BPOV**

We had left Cullen Inc without any agreements. I was a little disappointed that we hadn't been able to land Cullen Inc as agents right away, but deals in Hollywood just didn't happen that easy. Alice and the boys had a good feeling about the whole deal, and were in high spirits. I was amazed at how well they took it.

Emmett, always hungry, had wanted to take us all out for lunch to celebrate. As he had put it, "We got inside Cullen Inc, and we got to talk to the big boss himself. That alone is cause for celebration!" So we had all agreed. Celebratory lunch and meeting from hell over with, I was now back at my office, booting up my computer. I wasn't going to hold my breath when it came to Cullen Inc, I was anything but sure Edward would sign all three. I needed to keep looking for agents. If for no other reason than to show that Alice, Jasper and Emmett were all hot and coveted actors.

The rest of my day went by quickly. I buried myself in work, and actually managed to book appointments with other agents for next week. I would take our business elsewhere if I couldn't get all three signed with Cullen Inc.

When I finally made it to my building, I was wiped. I only lived on the third floor, so I took the stairs. Might as well get the exercise. I had my head down and my hand inside my purse, looking for my keys as I walked around the corner to my door. The sight that met me, stopped me dead in my tracks. There were dozens and dozens of bouquets of flowers, and they were all kinds. One of the bouquets had a big, white card on top. Hesitating, I took it off the flowers and held it in my hands. Looking down at the writing on the card, I realized that I didn't recognize the handwriting.

Unsure of who had sent them, and what I would find on the card, I decided to wait with reading it. First I wanted to get all the flowers inside my apartment. It took me a good five minutes to get everything inside and to find a space for every bouquet. My tiny apartment looked even smaller with all the flowers everywhere.

Taking my coat off, and slipping off my shoes, I finally made it to my sofa, card in hand. My heart was beating like crazy as I opened up the envelope. It was a simple, white card, with a gold 'C' on the outside. My heart dropped when I saw the 'C'. _Cullen. _I was certain the flowers were from Edward. _But why? _Not being able to wait any longer, I opened the card and read it.

_Bella,_

_I really wanted to talk to you today, but with the others there it was impossible. We need to talk about what happened a few weeks ago. Please call me._

_Edward_

At the bottom of the card were his numbers, both his cell, home and work. I stared at the card for a long time, before I put it on the table and walked out of the living room. I took out a bottle of water from the fridge, and stood in the doorway between the kitchen and living room, staring at the card, laying all innocently on the table.

I looked at all the beautiful flowers and wondered what his game-plan was. What was Edward up to? I hadn't heard from him since I walked out on him few weeks ago. I had been the one to get in touch with him, but only for business. Then I remembered something I hadn't thought about since the day after my encounter with Edward, _we hadn't used condoms! _

"Fuck, Bella! You moron!" I grabbed my purse and ran out of the apartment. I needed a pregnancy test, the 72 hour window to take the morning after pill was obviously long gone. So I could kiss the easy solution goodbye. I wanted to cry, how could I have forgotten something so important? I made my way to the closest CVS and went hunting for the pregnancy tests. When I found the right isle, I just stopped and stared dumbly at the variety of tests. I had never needed one before, I didn't know which one to choose, and I didn't want to ask anyone either.

I wrapped my arms around myself, trying no to break down in public, when I heard him, "Hi Bella."

**EPOV**

I had stopped by CVS to pick up a few things, and I was about to get out of my car when I saw Bella walk into CVS. She looked distraught. Puzzled, I locked up my car and went in after her, and found her walking up and down the isles in the pharmacy section, obviously looking for something. I watched her until she finally stopped, and approached her slowly. She had wrapped her arms around herself and looked as if she was about to break down.

I was standing behind her, but she didn't even notice. I looked at what she was staring at, pregnancy tests. _Shit! _Then I remembered. We hadn't used any protection. I looked at her, and I felt my heart ache for her. Why hadn't she said anything? I took a deep breath, now was a good a time as any to step up and be a man about it. "Hi Bella," I said quietly.

She whipped around, and I saw all color drain from her face before her cheeks turned scarlet just seconds later.

"Wh...wh...what are you doing here?" she stammered.

"I was here to pick up a few things when I saw you here," I paused and looked her in the eyes, "you getting one of these because of us being together that day?" I asked and nodded towards the tests. She didn't say anything, just gave me a quick nod.

I pursed my lips and looked at the tests before I looked back at her, "All right, what kind should we get?"

She looked at me as if I had grown a second head in the span of three seconds, "What do you mean 'we'?"

I shrugged and gave her one of my crooked smiles, "It took two to tango, you shouldn't have to do this alone."

She looked away from me and back at the pregnancy tests, "I don't know what kind to get. I don't know which one of these will be the most accurate." She sounded defeated.

I stepped closer to Bella and looked at the tests, "So let's get a bunch of these," I said and picked out three. Bella just nodded.

We went to the cashier to pay for the tests, my shopping list no longer important. As we walked out of CVS I looked down at Bella, "Where do you want to do this? You want to go to your place or come back to mine?"

She thought for a few seconds, "Your place."

"Do you have a car here?" I asked. She just shook her head, so I put my hand on the small of her back and lead her to my car, which I had gotten back just two days ago from the shop.

When we got to my apartment, Bella took the bag with the pregnancy tests and went into my bathroom. In the meantime I went to the kitchen to retrieve the kitchen timer. Bella came out of the bathroom and I set the timer. Together we sat at the edge of the bed and waited for the timer to go off and tell us what the future would hold for us.

**A/N:** It's still hard to believe that people are reading this little story. The amount of traffic I am getting is blowing my mind away. If you haven't read the oneshot I wrote with Ezzery, please do. It's a fun little story, no big thought behind it - just having a little fun with Bella and Edward. There might be more oneshot's coming your way if the mood strikes. Thank you all for reading.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **We're having progress! No temper tantrums this time. Only a slight panic attack when I wrote myself into yet another corner. My girls, Ezzery, monksmama, Cydryna Marie - you help me more than you know by just talking to me, getting my mind off this story. Sometimes a girl needs a distraction. Thank you.

**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters.

**BPOV**

I couldn't believe I was back in Edward's bedroom. I couldn't believe it was less than three weeks ago since I had been here. It felt a lot longer than that. Here we were now, sitting on Edward's bed, waiting for the timer to go off and tell us if I was pregnant or not. I put my head in my hands, how would all this work if I was pregnant? I didn't know the guy! But there was one thing I had to know, and the one person who could answer me, was sitting right next to me.

I looked at him, "Edward?"

He turned and looked back at me, "Yeah?" his voice was barely a whisper.

"I have to know, why did you sleep with me? Was it a bet between you and Rosalie?" I was staring at him, unable to look away.

He sighed, "Bella, no. What on earth made you think something like that?" He looked almost sad, "I can't believe you'd think something like that about me," he looked down as he said the last words, shaking his head.

"I just didn't know what to think. I'm hardly like the women you're usually with, it made me question why. Running into Rosalie at Starbucks, and then running into the two of you at the bar later made it seem like a real possibility." Edward was looking at his hands as I explained. But before he could say anything, the timer went off, telling us the tests were ready.

We looked at each other, then got up slowly together. I felt my heart drop down to my stomach, and grabbed onto Edward's hand. I didn't have the strength to go look by myself, I needed to borrow some of his. He held onto me just as hard as I held onto him, slowly we walked to the bathroom and looked at the tests all laying on the counter next to the sink. They all held the same answer, there was no doubt. I was pregnant.

I sat down on the edge of the bathtub, and cried. They were tears of frustration, anger, sorrow, fear and happiness. That last emotion made me hiccup, _happiness? _I held onto that emotion. Then I sighed, yeah, I wanted this kid.

I felt Edward sit down next to me and wrap his arms around me, and I wondered, _what next?_

**EPOV**

I held Bella's hand as we both looked down at the pregnancy tests. In less than one hour, my whole life had changed direction. I wanted to kick myself for being stupid enough to forget to use a condom, but at the same time I was glad that if this had to happen, it would be with Bella. I had been crushing on her for so long now, I could see myself seriously fall in love with her.

Bella let go of my hand and sat down on the edge of the bathtub, crying. _Did she not want this? Did I want this?_ I looked at Bella, there was no doubt in my mind. I wanted this if she wanted it. I would not force the pregnancy on her if she wanted to abort it, but if she decided to keep the baby, I would be there every step of the way. I had meant what I had said at CVS, it had taken the two of us to get here, and she would not do the rest alone.

I sat down next to Bella and wrapped my arms around her, and I wondered, had I not run into her at CVS, would I have ever found out about this? Had I not run into her, she would be home right now, doing this alone. The thought made me cringe.

When Bella calmed down a little, I picked her up and carried her to my bedroom. I put her on the bed and looked down at her. She looked so lost. She was pregnant right now, but I had no idea if she was going to keep it. I crawled over Bella and laid down next to her, hugging her frame to mine.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked her when she had stopped crying.

She sighed, "Nothing in particular, just trying to get used to the thought of...this."

I nodded, "What are you going to do about...this?" I didn't want to come across too eager, but I was dying to know if she was going to keep it or not.

She didn't say anything for the longest time, and I didn't want to push her so I waited. She closed her eyes before answering me, "I think... I think I'm going to keep it."

With her eyes still closed, she didn't' see the smile that crept onto my face. I tried to make my voice as neutral as possible before replying, "Okay."

Nothing else was said. I pulled her close to me and held her. I wanted her to know that I was here and I was going to be with her every step of the way. Eventually both of us fell asleep.

**BPOV**

The sun was shining, rays hitting the bottom of the bed I was in, when I woke up, groggy and disoriented about where I was. Something was holding me back when I tried to sit up, I turned my head and saw Edward. Then it all came crashing back to me. Curiously though, it didn't scare me. I just felt oddly at peace. I remembered how Edward had said he would be there for this. Even if sleeping together was a stupid mistake, the baby would have both parents in its' life. I couldn't demand anything more than that.

I just lay there, thinking, waiting for Edward to wake up. It was time to bite the bullet and talk. It didn't matter how uncomfortable I was with the idea of actually having to sit down with Edward and talk, it had to be done. I needed to know what we were going to do next in order to move on.

I untangled from Edward and got up to go to the bathroom, stopping short when I opened the door and saw the counter. All the tests were still laying there, on display. Sighing, I looked at them, they were screaming "pregnant" at me. I wasn't going to panic about it now, so I looked for the trashcan and chucked them all in. I was here, and I was pregnant, and I was going to deal with it. I didn't have time for panic.

40 minutes later Edward stirred and opened his eyes, "Hey, you're still here."

I cringed, I deserved that one, "Yeah, sorry about running out last time," I said as I walked out of the bathroom and sat next to him on the bed.

He just chuckled and pulled me closer to his body, "Bella, we really need to talk today. I'm going to call work and tell them to manage without me today, I suggest you do the same." I just nodded, having already decided we should talk.

Edward looked at me as we lay there, intertwined, a thoughtful look in his eyes. He leaned in and kissed me softly, the kiss was so tender it made my toes curl. I broke away from the kiss and rested my forehead on his chest. I heard him sigh and felt him kiss the top of my head, and I was more confused than ever about the man who right now was treating me like I was something delicate and precious.

We laid there for a little while in silence. Edward finally got up telling me he was going to call the office.

As I walked into the kitchen, it smelled heavenly of coffee. I stood in the door, and looked at Edward as he hung up his phone and poured me a mug of steaming coffee. I walked over to where he was standing and gratefully accepted the hot brew.

I sighed happily after taking the first sip, "Nothing ever seems as bad when there is coffee involved," I joked.

He looked at me, crooked smile in place, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

I looked at the phone he had put down on the counter next to the coffee machine, "May I? I left my phone at home, and I should probably call work and tell them to hold the fort." He just nodded. I picked up the phone and walked to the living room to make the phone call. Not that I needed the privacy, it was just easier to talk to Angela, who basically was me when I was not at work, without Edward staring at me.

**EPOV**

I watched as Bella went to the living room to make her phone call. She had left her mug on the counter when she picked up the phone. I took both her mug and mine, and carried them both to the kitchen table, and sat down to wait for her.

When she came back in, she sat down at the table opposite me, and cradled her mug in her hands. She took another sip of coffee and wrinkled her nose a little, "Do you have any milk and sugar? You've made this coffee so strong, I need to kill it a little."

I grinned, "I tend to make the first pot of coffee too strong," I got up from my chair and walked over to the cabinet, "do you want brown or white sugar?" She asked for the brown sugar, and I watched as she poured four teaspoons of sugar into her mug before topping it off with milk. I shook my head and looked at her, "You've got quite the sweet tooth, haven't you?"

She just smiled and shrugged her shoulders, as she stirred the concoction. She took a sip of the now sweetened and watered down coffee, "That's better. It doesn't make my cavities want to jump out of my mouth any longer."

I laughed, "No, with that amount of sugar you're just going to make room for new ones."

We both laughed at that, and when the laughter died, we knew it was time to talk. I could feel the tension build in Bella, and stretched out one arm and took one of her hands in mine, squeezing it reassuringly.

"Bella, last night you said some things I didn't get a chance to answer," she was looking at me intently, waiting for what I would say, "Rosalie and me..." I sighed, how best to describe our relationship without scaring Bella off? I took a deep breath and jumped into it, "Rosalie is my best friend, more than that, she's like a sister to me," Bella's shoulders relaxed visibly, "I am guessing you saw her kissing me at the bar," a quick look at Bella confirmed my suspicion, and I sighed.

I brushed my hand through my hair, never taking my eyes off of Bella, "I had told Rose about you earlier, and she thinks you're wrong for me. She saw you come into the bar, and decided that she needed to protect me from you. So she kissed me while you watched."

"I saw you kiss her back," Bella said so quietly I barely heard her.

"A drunken reaction, I pulled away seconds later, turned around and saw you leave."

Bella sat back in her chair, and crossed her arms, "Why doesn't Rosalie like me?"

"Bella, it's not you. Well, not _just _you. Rose doesn't think anyone is good enough for me." Bella didn't comment that further, she just nodded.

"When you drove off in the cab, I gave Rose a piece of my mind. She's not going to bother you anymore," I smiled ruefully. I hated arguing with Rosalie, but it'd had to be done. She'd overstepped her boundaries.

"It was pretty stupid of us not use a condom, huh?" Bella was trying to steer away from talking about Rosalie.

"Something I never forget, should tell you how much you affect me, Bella," I grinned at her before sobering up, "so we're going to be parents." It was more a statement than a question.

Bella looked at me intently, as if she was trying to read my mind, "How is this thing going to work out?"

I looked down at my now empty mug, trying to collect my thoughts,"I'm not sure, maybe we should just figure things out as we go? The only thing I know for sure, is that I want to be there for this the whole time. I'm talking about OBGYN appointments, birth, thinking of names, raising the kid, everything. I also want to be there financially. I don't want this to be a burden on you in any way."

**BPOV**

_The man could talk! _I hadn't expected him to feel this strongly about something that _just _had happened. I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table, and stared at my half full mug, the coffee cold and forgotten by now. I peeked up at Edward through my lashes, he was as gorgeous as ever. Looking at him, I knew we would never be, but I would take what I could get of this amazing man. He would never be mine, but at least I would have him in my life.

I rubbed my eyes with my thumbs, "Fine, we do this together. Mind you, it's going to be a bumpy ride. I don't know you, and you don't know me – I have no idea how we'll get along. But I'm at least willing to try to figure all this out." Leaning back in the chair, which was quickly becoming uncomfortable, I looked at Edward nod his head.

Then I remembered something else, "How is this going to affect Cullen Inc possibly taking on Alice, Jasper and Emmett as clients?" I had completely forgotten that this would affect more lives than just mine and Edward's.

Edward got up from his chair and refilled his mug with fresh coffee, he turned around to face me and leaned against the counter before he spoke, "It shouldn't. I still have to talk to the others working for me to see if we can handle three new clients. If we do have the capacity for all three, then it would be business as usual." He came back to the table, "Bella, I can't give you any unfair advantage just because we're having a kid."

I shook my head, "Oh no, that's not what I was talking about. I was more worried about being given unfair _dis_advantage. I was worried you'd be tougher about taking them on because of this."

He sighed and pinched the top of his nose, "I have always made a point of not mixing my personal life with my professional life, and I don't intend on starting now. If I have enough agents to cover Jasper, Emmett and Alice, we'll make an appointment for a meeting and simply take it from there."

I felt relief flood through me, that was all I needed to hear.

**EPOV**

Taking the day off from work had turned out to be a good thing. After we got 'the talk' out of the way, we got to talk about all sorts of things. Talking to Bella was easy, and I got to see a side of her I didn't even know existed. Where I had perceived her to be cold and standoffish, I found her to be warm and passionate.

Bella had a big heart, and a lot of love for everyone in her life. Her eyes had lit up and sparkled when she had talked about her dad, the Chief of police in the state of Washington, and her mom, the teacher in Florida. But nothing got her as animated as when she spoke about Emmett, Jasper and Alice. Not only was she their manager, but she also was their friend, cheerleader and confidante. She spent so much time with them, they were her family away from her family. The way she spoke so passionately about her friends, made me want to sign them on solely based on her enthusiasm, and I wanted to take personal care of their careers.

"Tell me more about the guys," I asked Bella.

She looked at me and smiled, "What do you want to know?"

I couldn't help myself and smiled back at her, "Tell me something the public doesn't know."

She sighed and got a far away look in her eyes, "Well, Emmett might seem like a brute. He's so huge and can be quite scary looking. He intimidates people. But when you get to know him, he's just a big kid. He's like a teddy bear, all sweet and cuddly. With Jasper is pretty much 'what you see is what you get'. He's quiet and deep, always thinking. He has a way with words, and he feels right at home up on a stage. He has the biggest heart, always helping everyone. He's really one of the good guys. And Alice..." Bella got quiet at that point, thoughtful, "Alice is Alice. She holds enough energy to keep everyone around her going for days. She's a real people's person, and her sense of fashion is unlike any I've ever seen. She does her own wardrobe and makeup. If she wasn't so good at acting, she would be in fashion. I have no doubts about that. But she is also like the sister I never had. I don't bond easily with people, but Alice got me from the moment we met, " Bella looked directly at me, "Alice is my soul-sister, if you believe in that kind of thing."

"Wow, I see why you said it's all three of them or non of them. If we were only to represent two of them, who would you pick?"

"I wouldn't," Bella shook her head, "I don't want to talk business without the others, but if your company is unable to represent all three of them, we'll be going elsewhere."

I nodded, "I see..."

"I don't think you do," she shook her head, "these guys are top of the line. They are never late for work, they never throw temper tantrums, they never have unreasonable demands, they get along with everyone, and they're not afraid of demanding work. All three of them are going to be on top of everyone's lists of people to work with, and we want the best to get us there."

"Us?"

Bella smiled and relaxed her shoulders a little, "Yes. Us. As their manager, I'm on for the ride. Question is, are you? Or are you just going to hand this opportunity over to someone else?"

"Heh... It's not for me to decide on my own. Unless..." A brilliant idea was forming in my head.

Bella looked expectedly at me, "Unless..."

My hand went to my hair, "One way to guarantee signing all three on with Cullen Inc would simply be to hired a new agent who would deal exclusively with them. A lot of the people in this town are jaded, so that would mean training someone new," I looked at Bella, sized her up, "you would be perfect for the job."

Bella burst out laughing, probably thinking I was joking. I waited until she was done before I said anything else. Once she calmed down again, I pounced, "You would be perfect. You already know them, you are already their manager, you know this town, you know most of the people, a little training and you could do this job."

"Edward, if I thought I could do this job, we would not be talking with your company. But being their manager is kind of a full time job as it is. I don't have time to be their agent as well. And no, they're not changing management."

I nodded, seeing her point, "Oh well, it was just a wild idea anyway."

"Having one agent to deal with all three is a good idea," Bella pursed her lips, once more lost in thought.

"Yeah... But like you said, let's not talk business now." I didn't want anyone else to snap up the guys, and I could tell Bella was serious with her 'all or nothing' deal. I had to talk to my agents and find a way. But I didn't want to spend today thinking about that. Today was about spending time with Bella and getting to know her.

"All right. No more business," she laughed, "so tell me something about you."

I shrugged my shoulders, "There really isn't much to say. I'm an only child, my parents are still married to each other, and they live here in LA as well so I see them at least once a week for dinner."

"That's pretty generic," Bella laughed, "doesn't exactly give away anything about you."

"Well... My dad, Carlisle, is a doctor over at Cedars-Sinai, and my mom, Esme, is a housewife who moonlights as an interior designer when she feels like it. I grew up in Chicago, but we moved down here the summer before I started high school. My parents wanted me to go into the medical field, but I just wasn't cut out for it. I found the entertainment industry much more alluring, so here I am." A pretty watered down version, but what else could I tell Bella?

"Where does Rosalie fit into the picture?" Bella was looking down at her hands, plucking on a cuticle when she asked this quietly.

"Rosalie is...complicated..." I didn't know how to explain Rose.

"Oh..."

I sighed and scratched the stubble on my face, "Not that kind of complicated. There never was anything between me and Rose. She really is my best friend, and she is always protecting my back. It's just that... Well... Rosalie _is _complicated. As a person. Not my relationship with her. Just her."

"Okay..." Bella didn't look convinced.

"Look Bella, it's Rosalie's story to tell. It would be wrong of me to say anything without her knowing. I can't betray a friend like that."

"That's alright, Edward." Bella stretched her arms above her head and yawned, "Not that I hold anything against your coffee, but right now I'm dying for a real cappuccino from Starbucks. And I need to get home and change my clothes. I should get going."

It was still early in the day, and I didn't want to let Bella go yet, "Do you mind if I tag along?"

**BPOV**

"Why?" I didn't get why Edward would spend his day off with me.

"I want to get to know you some more. I mean, if I'm going to have a kid, I should get to know the baby's mommy." He had his crooked grin on as he said that last part.

_Oh shit! He's going to walk around calling me 'mommy'. _"Please don't call me 'mommy', that shit is weird!"

Edward laughed at that, "I'll make you a deal, I won't call you 'mommy' if you let me tag along."

He really looked different when he laughed, like someone I couldn't resist, "Fine, you can tag along. First stop, Starbucks."

After a pit stop at Starbucks, I felt a whole lot better after downing a venti cappuccino. I didn't notice Edward's face after I let us inside my tiny apartment. I walked to my small bedroom, desperately needing a shower and to change my clothes.

"This place is smaller than my closet," I heard Edward comment from the living room.

"Yeah, I know it's small. But I love it here. It's home," I leaned on the door frame and looked at him, a new thought coming to me, "but seeing as it won't be just me in a few months, I should probably think about upgrading to a bigger place," I turned and walked back into the bedroom.

"Move in with me."

I turned away from my closet and saw that Edward was standing in the doorway, looking intently at me, "What?"

**EPOV**

I looked around Bella's shoe box that tried to pass for an apartment, I could not believe she could live comfortably here. I hadn't really thought it through when I heard myself say, "Move in with me."

I had clearly shocked Bella when she whipped around and said, "What?"

**A/N: **You guys are my heros for still reading this. You really do make a girl giddy with mushy happy. Thank you to all of you who have reviewed, it means the world to me.


	6. Chapter 6

**NEW A/N: **I had a slight problem with continuity from chapter 6 and on to chapter 7 - this problem has been adressed and fixed in chapter 6, so that the timeline doesn't feel off. For some strange reason I didn't catch this slight glitch, and I want to thank **Scorpio11** for catching this and notifying me. You're my saving angel! Thank you again!

**A/N: **This chapter has been killing me, it's why I have taken this long with it. And I would never have finished writing this without **Ezzery** who help me with the shopping nightmare, and **Megsly** who helped me with Bella's conditions. Yep, wrote myself into complete stand-still twice! As I was ready to scrap the whole thing and start over, **Monksmama** talked me off the ledge and assured me all was good. We all owe it to these three ladies for getting this chapter out.

When you're done reading this, head over to read **Prove me innocent** and **Fingerprint** by Ezzery, **For Eternity** and **A life undone** by Monksmama, and **Horizons** and **Through your eyes** by Megsly. These stories have me buzzing with excitement every time they're updated.

**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters.

**BPOV**

_4 months later_

"Shit!" I was talking to no one in particular, I was alone at my apartment, cursing out my wardrobe. Or rather, lack of wardrobe. My trousers and skirts were tight around the abdomen, and my tops were tight around the abdomen and the boobs. I was getting so frustrated with having nothing to wear, I just wanted to burn my clothes. All that fit me these days were old sweatpants and hoodies. Not exactly something I could wear for work.

My OBGYN had warned me that because of my short and tiny frame, I would start showing early. And the asshole also forbid me my coffee. He took away my cappuccinos! I was ready to kill someone when he told me that. Edward hadn't been much help either, making sure I didn't get any coffee in me. Good thing he didn't know about the occasional tall cappuccino I was able to sneak out. At least I had downsized from venti, and it wasn't every day. I was proud of myself for that.

I gave up on the clothes and flung myself on the bed, especially mad at Edward for getting me pregnant in the first place. In the three months since we found out I was pregnant, I had gotten to know him a little better. But he had an annoying knack at annoying me. Yeah, even unable to think of a better word than annoying. _God that's annoying._ Gah!

When he had asked me to move in with him first time he saw my apartment, I had been speechless for the longest time. When I finally managed to connect my brain with my vocal chords, I had rejected the idea. I had thought the offer to be sweet, but no way in hell was I moving in with a stranger. No matter how sexy he was and how big his apartment was. But he kept on asking, and I kept on saying no. He wasn't about to give up, and it was driving me insane.

Laying on my bed and staring at the ceiling, my mind started to wander. To Edward. Having him involved in my life now reminded me constantly about our one encounter. Thinking about Edward always left me hot and bothered. I was always fascinated with different parts of Edward, today I was hung up on his hands. Those talented hands of his that had made our one night stand very pleasurable. I looked at my own hands thinking about his, I still remembered the buzzing from him holding my hand the first time.

I sighed and turned to my side, and looked out the window. The buzzing was still there whenever he touched me. My whole body got tingly from his touch. _Shit! _Just _thinking_ about his touch was making my whole body tingle. Lately the man was making me feel all hot and bothered whenever he was in my general vicinity. I had been attracted to him for as long as I could remember, but never had I wanted to jump his bones as badly as this past couple weeks. _Maybe I should re-think the whole moving in with him..._

"No!" I said out loud to no one in particular. "I can't move in with him, that'll be too weird," still talking to myself. Yep. I was slowly driving myself crazy, no doubt about it... I groaned and got out of bed, I needed to find _something _to wear and get my ass to work. Alice, Jasper and Emmett were coming by today, it was our first meeting since Cullen Inc signed all three. It had been an uphill battle, but Edward and his agents had finally been able to work out a deal. All three would be getting the best agents in town, and it made me really happy. That would mean better jobs, better press, better money, and bigger careers.

Trying to push all thoughts out of my head, I found a pair of old jeans I hadn't worn for ages. They were a lose fit, so hopefully I could squeeze my ass into them, and I would have to settle for a hoodie to top off my outfit. At least until I could go out and buy some new clothes that fit. What had I been thinking when I decided to stay pregnant? I laid out the clothes on my bed and headed for the shower. This pregnancy was killing me with the heat flashes, and I was always feeling sticky and sweaty. Very sexy!

**EPOV**

Five months, and I had not been able to stop thinking about Bella for even a minute. I could not get enough of her, it was driving me crazy. Even at big meetings I could not get her out of my mind. Some days I found it hard to believe that she was carrying my child. _My child! _It felt unreal, but I was going to have a kid very soon. I had never though much about having kids, always figured maybe somewhere down the line. Well, down the line was suddenly here and biting me in the ass.

I had been with Bella to every OBGYN appointment, and all was well with both mother and child. We had been warned that since Bella was so tiny, she would get big fast, and the last months of the pregnancy would be hard on her. It was one of the reasons I had been bugging Bella to move in with me. I knew it would be hard for her soon, and she would need someone to be there and take care of her. Then there was that shoe box she called an apartment. _Please! _She would never be able to live there with a child and everything that comes with said child. But she wouldn't budge. Really stubborn, that one.

Bella's addiction to Starbucks cappuccinos was infamous. The OBGYN had told her to lay off the caffeine, but I knew Bella was sneaking some behind my back. She didn't think I knew, but I had seen her coming out of the local Starbucks one day, with a cup in her hand. Didn't take much to convince the barista to tell me what had been in that cup. At least she had downsized the coffee, and she wasn't in every day, just a couple times a week. I considered that to be good news, and didn't want to give her grief about it. Not until I had convinced her to move in with me, at least.

I rubbed my neck as I waited for my coffeemaker to brew fresh coffee. I didn't believe I would be able to convince Bella to move in with me on my own. But I really didn't know anyone who knew Bella, and who could help me. I poured a cup of the freshly brewed coffee and sat down at the table with the newspapers. As I took my first sip, an idea was forming in my head. I _did_ know someone who knew Bella. Scratch that, I didn't yet know her, but I would soon. From what I gathered from what Bella had told me, Alice Brandon was her best friend. I would soon be working with Alice, overseeing her career personally.

I didn't deal with many clients personally any more, it took too much of my time to simply run the business. But now and then, when the chemistry was right, I would take on a case of my own. After few more meetings with Bella, Alice and the boys, I had known that I wanted to work with Alice. She was destined to be huge, and I wanted to be there and contribute to get her to the top. Mike and Tanya would be working with Jasper and Emmett respectively, and me working with Alice had solved the logistical problems we had been running around. I took another sip of my coffee, opened up my newspaper, and felt quite happy with myself. I would be needing to talk to Alice soon. Very soon. I grinned to myself and tried to concentrate on the news.

**BPOV**

I felt frumpy and a mess showing up at work in old jeans and a hoodie. I had to go out and get new clothes today, there was no putting it off any longer. I hated shopping, but it could not be avoided any more. Just the thought made me shudder, and a little scared, but maybe taking Alice with me would be a good idea. She would know where I would need to go to find decent office clothes for pregnant women.

I walked into the office and said good morning to Angela, who gave me a funny look.

"I know, Ang, but nothing else fits," I tried to laugh it off, but still felt like shit.

Angela just smiled and shook her head, "It doesn't bother me, so I wouldn't worry about it if I were in your place."

Angela Weber really was sweet. I could not have asked for better when I hired her, when I eventually would not be able to work any more because of my _situation, _she would be the one who would run the shop. Angela was fully capable to run everything for when I was away at meetings and such, but these past few months, I had been training her to run this place full time while I went on maternity leave.

She gave me today's schedule as I was walking towards my office in the back, the others should be here soon. After the meeting with Alice, Emmett and Jasper, I would have to spend a little time to send out requests for a personal assistant for Jasper. He was juggling too many things these days, and needed someone to keep control of his days. That, and he would be going on tour soon, so a PA would be essential to him. After that, I had a pretty free schedule for the rest of the day, so I could go out and do some dreaded shopping.

Alice had been the first one to show up for the meeting, she had taken one look at me and said, "We're going shopping," saving me from begging for help. I never knew how to ask Alice for help, not that I ever needed to, she always seemed to know when I was desperate and needed her fashion help.

Going shopping with Alice, who got recognized everywhere, was quite the experience. As soon as we set foot at Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, she was dragging me from designer shop to designer shop. Really not caring that everything they had was overpriced. Finding anything for pregnant women in these boutiques was impossible. Even Alice was getting frustrated at one point, and when Alice got frustrated, she got snarky with the salespeople. We didn't strike gold until we walked into Bebe, where Alice was able to pull together several outfits that would fit me through most of my pregnancy.

When it was time to pay, I didn't even look at the price tags, I just closed my eyes and swiped my credit card through the machine. It wasn't like I didn't have money, but I hated wasting it on expensive things. Shopping with Alice, what had I thought? Of course she would drag my ass here, instead of somewhere more generic.

When I got home from the grueling shopping trip with Alice, I sat down on the sofa and refused to move. I turned on the TV, but wasn't really watching. It was strange how being pregnant left me with so much less energy. Dragging me all over Rodeo Drive, Alice hadn't thought much about it either.

I was hungry, we hadn't had time to eat anything, but I just could not muster enough energy to drag myself out of the sofa and make myself something to eat. I leaned back and rested my head against the sofa, pondering if I was hungry enough to get up and go to the kitchen, when I heard a knock at the door.

I took a quick look at my watch, seven p.m., I wasn't expecting anyone. Sighing heavily I got up off the sofa and opened the front door. _Edward! _My heart skipped a beat at the sight of him, he still could affect me without doing anything.

"Wh...what are you doing here?" I asked as I felt my face turn red. _Damn!_

"I brought dinner," he grinned, "I knew you went shopping with Alice, and I figured after that experience, you would need some pampering." The man was entirely too perfect.

"Thank you, Edward. But you really didn't need to go to the trouble..."

He cut me off, "No trouble at all," he gave me his crooked grin. _Sigh._ Who could protest when he smiled like that anyway?

I let him in, and he went straight to my small kitchen, and set the containers on the table. When he opened up the boxes the smell was divine, and my stomach growled, making Edward laugh and me blush even more.

"I brought Chinese, do you want to eat out of the containers or do you prefer plates?" he asked, looking at me.

"Chinese is best right out of the containers," I grinned sheepishly, sitting down at the table. My mouth was drooling at the sight of all the food. I grabbed a pair of chopsticks and dug into the orange chicken. I didn't say anything for a long while while I guzzled down the food. Edward was watching me in amusement the whole time, but I just didn't care at that point.

"Wow, I've never seen a woman dig in like that before," he teased me, making me blush a little.

"I'm pregnant and I'm hungry, don't expect any ladylike table manners from me right now," I joked back, making him laugh. He was beautiful when he laughed, it made his eyes twinkle.

We sat at my small kitchen, eating and talking for a long while. He had even brought wine without any alcohol for me, which didn't taste half bad. I was the most relaxed I had been all day, lately Edward had that effect on me. When everyone else was driving me crazy, he managed to wind me down again. I loved talking to him like this, get to know him.

I knew he was dying to ask me to move in with him again. I could tell, he was tensing up a little. He always did right before he badgered me about it, "Bella..." he began.

"Edward, the answer is still no," I didn't even let him finish his question. I was afraid that if he did, I would give in, and move in.

"All right," he whispered, and looked down at the now empty food containers. He seemed a little deflated, and I almost caved anyway.

"Do you want some coffee?" I asked, trying to shake him out of the funk.

"I thought you couldn't drink coffee," he narrowed his eyes as he looked at me sternly.

"Not for me, silly. I'm going to have some herbal tea," I defended myself. I couldn't drink coffee this late anyway, not if I wanted to get some sleep tonight. He seemed to relax a little as he nodded his head. "All right, go sit in the living room, and I'll have the coffee ready for you shortly," I said, nodding my head towards the living room. Edward simply got up and walked out of the kitchen, and I felt a twinge of bad conscience for shooting him down about the living arrangements.

I turned on the kettle and prepared the coffee press, thinking about moving in with Edward. Would it really be that bad?_Yes, he's already making you hot and bothered, imagine having him there all the time... _I sighed, cursing my hormones for being so all over the place. Then I thought about him sitting in my sofa, waiting for me. _Oh god, I wanna jump his bones._

I shook my head, trying to snap out of the hormonal frenzy I was in. Pouring the water first in the coffee press, then in my teacup, I tried to think practically about living with Edward. It would certainly make taking care of the baby easier. I wouldn't have to do it alone. It would be like having a live-in nanny. I snickered at the idea of Edward as a nanny. He was too masculine to pull that one off.

**EPOV**

Bella was impossible to convince otherwise once she had made her mind up about something. It seemed there was not changing her mind about her moving in with me. I sat on her sofa, looking towards the kitchen. I was seriously starting to consider kidnapping her, lock her in in one of my rooms, move her shit and give this place away to the first sucker showing up. Pulling at my hair, I knew _that _would never win her over. I had to talk to Alice soon and see if she would be able to help me talk to Bella.

I watched Bella come in with two steaming mugs, and started to get up to help her, but she shook her head, so I sat back down again and accepted my mug of coffee when she handed it to me. Bella sat down on the other side of the sofa, but turned towards me, feet tucked underneath her. Cradling her mug, she stared and the tea and let out a quiet sigh.

"I'm sorry I shot you down like that about the whole apartment thing earlier," she didn't look up from her mug. I was glad she at least acknowledged that the question was still on the table, but I didn't say anything about it. I doubted she would let me say anything anyway, so I just continued looking at her. _The pregnancy was making her skin glow, god she turned me on. _I took a sip of the coffee, trying to get my mind off wanting to fuck Bella senseless right here and right now. _God! Stop it!_

We were both quiet for a while, but it wasn't an uncomfortable quiet. It felt nice. Homey. Bella looked like she was pondering something, but her face gave away nothing, and I wished I could read her mind. I was staring at her the whole time, trying to figure her out. Suddenly she took a deep breath and looked straight at me, I never expected her to say what came out of her mouth, "Fine, I'll move in, but I have conditions, and we really need to talk about it."

I forgot how to breathe, she really had a way of leaving me speechless. Hell, I couldn't even think right now. Putting the mug down on the table, I tried to figure out how to talk. Looking back at her, I suddenly had a million questions and ideas coursing through my head, "All right, what are your conditions?" I hoped she didn't have any that would be deal breakers, although, I was willing to meet any conditions if it meant I could get her out of this shoe box.

"I don't have everything clear yet, that's why we need to talk about this," she pouted a little, and I wanted to pounce on her, "I just decided, so I'm taking a leap of faith here." I just nodded, I didn't want to say anything yet and ruin the whole thing before we even got to talk about it. "First of all, I am keeping my apartment. This is my home, even if I agree to move in with you. I'm just not giving up my home, and that's final. Second, you will not be spending any money one me. Not a dime. And that is also final. Third, since we know absolutely nothing about one another, every day until the baby is born, we have to tell something about ourselves."

She looked at me after she delivered me her list of conditions. I could understand her need to keep the shoe box as a security, if that made her feel safer, I was all for it. Whereas the no spending condition, I could work around that. Her third condition was brilliant, I would finally get to know Bella, "I accept your conditions. However, I might have one or two myself when I've had some time to think about it, and I want to be able to implement then if and when necessary," I looked her square in the eyes when I said that last part.

"It's just fair that you should be able to add conditions of your own," I could tell she thought she had the upper hand in this thing.

After that, we just hung out on her sofa and discussed all the practicalities that would have to be handled before she could move, and we settled on a date for the move. She wouldn't be bringing any of her furniture, but she needed to pack her clothes, shoes, all sorts of other personal items, and everything she would need for her job. For someone not moving permanently out of her place, she sure was bringing a lot of stuff.

"It's going to take you forever to pack all your stuff alone, Bella, and you're not exactly in condition to do any lifting," I didn't want her to tire herself out because of this.

She shook her head, "Oh I won't be doing this on my own. I'll call Alice and ask her to help me pack. Then you, Jasper and Emmett can do the heavy lifting," she looked at me with a smirk and a glint in her eyes. She was devious, I would have to watch my back with her in the house. I felt a tug at my heart, _Bella was going to be living with me._

Bella yawned and I looked at the watch, "It's past midnight! I'm so sorry for having kept you up for so long!" I felt like an class act idiot.

She just smiled, "Don't worry about it. I don't have any meetings tomorrow, so I'll just sleep in."

"Yeah, but you were out shopping with Alice for hours I'm sure, and the I've been hugging your whole evening."

"It's all right. This has actually been...nice," she had a slightly puzzled look in her eyes, as if she hadn't expected _that_ to ever happen.

"Yeah..." was all I managed to get out, as I got up to leave.

**BPOV**

It had taken me one week to pack up everything I needed to bring with me over to Edward's place. Alice had been a little dictator when it came to packing, I had no say in what clothes and shoes I got to bring with me, but I packed my favorite sweats, hoodies and sneakers in a separate bag when she wasn't looking, and had Edward sneak the bag out right under her nose. In the end there hadn't been too many boxes filled with stuff I was brining. I had figured I could always nip back here and pick up whatever I needed when I needed it. But the boys had been champs and helped me with moving everything into my new room at Edward's apartment.

When he had first shown me the room I would be staying in, I gawked. The room was bigger than my whole apartment. No wonder Edward called it a shoe box. I had my own walk-in closet, and my own bathroom which was massive. I knew it would be hard moving back to my own place after living in a spacious place like this for a while. There was no doubt in my mind that once the baby was a few months old, I would be moving back. I would just need help during the end of my pregnancy and the first few months as I got used to being a mom.

_I'm going to be someone's mom... _Sometimes it hit me like a ton of bricks, and I wanted to panic. I wasn't ready for this! But it was too late to change my mind now. These past weeks I had also learned a little more about Edward, he had honored the condition where we were to share something about ourselves every day. But I was still feeling a little uncomfortable around him, he was still as sexy as the devil, and his crooked smile made my heart skip a beat every time. Me wanting to jump his bones wasn't exactly helping either. These darned pregnancy hormones had my libido running on overdrive, and I had no one to help me with the 'problem', although...now, I had Edward just a few feet away... _No! _Dangerous territory. I couldn't go there.

I got out of my new bed, I hadn't exactly gotten much sleep my first couple weeks here, but I had to drag my ass to work. There were still a lot of things I needed to go over with Angela before I could give control over to her 100%. I had set up office in one of the corners of my bedroom, and shuffled my way over to the computer to check the calendar and see what my day was looking like. The morning looked pretty open, meaning I would have plenty of time with Angela. She had been asking me every day how living with Edward was, we had developed a routing where we got the gossip out of the way first thing in the mornings.

I took a quick shower and dressed comfortably, well, as comfortably as the clothes I had bought with Alice allowed me to be. I had a maternity dress that made feel like I was wearing a tent. But it was light and airy, these hormones were messing my with body temperature, I always felt sticky and sweaty within minutes. Fully dressed, and with my purse in hand, I walked into the kitchen. Edward was already sitting there enjoying his coffee. _Asshole! I want coffee too. _

He smiled when I walked in, "Good morning, sleep well?"

I shook my head, "Not really, I still miss my bed, and being pregnant isn't doing wonders with my sleeping pattern either," I didn't want to complain, but I didn't want to lie to him either.

I saw his face fell a little, "I'm sorry, is the bed uncomfortable? We can get you a new one if you want."

I gave him a stern look, "No money spending, remember? Besides, it wouldn't matter, it just takes a while to get used to the bed. I'll be fine."

"All right, if you say so. You should have some breakfast before we leave," he pointed towards a stack of pancakes, "I can whip up something else if you don't want them."

"Pancakes are good, do you have any sugar?" I asked as I sat down at the table.

"Sugar?" he sounded amused.

I laughed, "Yeah, I've never tried sugar on pancakes, but I'm suddenly craving exactly that."

Edward got up and got me the sugar, and I poured on an healthy amount before taking a bite, "I know this looks disgusting, but this is yummy!"

"Yummy, huh?" he looked at the plate as if he had never seen anything more repulsive.

"Here, try before you mock," I held my fort to his mouth. He gave me a strange look, but opened up his mouth and ate it.

"Wow, not bad!" He sounded surprised. I just grinned and finished my breakfast.

Edward had insisted on driving me to work, so we walked out of the apartment together. The heat hit me like a hot, uncomfortable blanket, and I could suddenly not breathe, and I felt my whole body go cold, "Edward..." and my whole world went black.

**EPOV**

The sound of my name made me turn towards Bella, her face was white and her eyes were rolling back as she fainted. Before I reached her she landed on the ground with a loud crack. I dropped everything I was holding and threw myself down next to her. As I was trying to feel for her pulse, I noticed that her skin was too hot and too clammy. I didn't want to move her too much, but as I lifted her head slightly to put my jacket underneath it, I noticed a spot of blood under her head that was growing bigger. "Shit! Bella! Bella, can you hear me?" I knew I would get no response, but it didn't stop me from trying.

I looked around for help, and saw the doorman come running, "Call 911!" he turned around and ran back in.

"Bella..." I felt a tightening in my chest as I watched her just lying there, unresponsive.

**A/N: **Now that I've pimped out everyone else, time to pimp out my new story, **The Roadtrip**. A fun little story about all the trouble things our three leading ladies cause while they're on the trip of their lives. The funny and the crazy is loosely based on the funny and the crazy I've done. It's purely entertainment, so if you need something light to read, take a look. And as always, thank you for reading ladies and gents. Especially thank you to those who reviewed, you all have a special place in my heart!


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **What can I say? I had a bit of a Bella moment two weeks ago, not only twisting my ankle but also hitting my face - it was not a pretty sight, and I'd say that Bella has nothing on me when it comes to being clumsy, I was just in too much pain to write. This chapter has also been giving me a really hard time, I was about to pull this story but my girls saved my ass again - 5 rewrites and I'm not 100% happy with it, but it is what it is. Eternally thankful to **Dena (Monksmama)** for saving me not only once, but twice on this story when I made the rookie mistake of writing about something I knew nothing about. That has now been rewritten. Equally eternally thankful to **Keyla (Ezzery)** for being frank with me and telling me that part of the story simply sucked donkey. Again, the donkey is now gone, and we can thank Keyla for that. She also does miracles with all my typos and grammar mistakes. I'd sound like a 3rd grader without her.

I know this chapter is a little on the short side, but the next one has already been worked out, and I can promise you enough drama there.

**Pimping** my favorite girls as always. When you're done here, go over to read **Prove me innocent** and **Fingerprint** by Ezzery, **For Eternity** and **A life undone** by Monksmama, **Horizons** and **Through your eyes** by Megsly, and **Work Hard Break Easy** by Cydryna Marie. These stories have me buzzing with excitement every time they're updated.

**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters.

**EPOV**

I looked around for help, and saw the doorman come running, "Call 911!" he turned around and ran back in.

"Bella..." I felt a tightening in my chest as I watched her just lying there, unresponsive. I wasn't worried about her fainting, I was much more concerned about the fall and the bleeding, she hit her head so hard. I could feel myself panic, but I refused to give into it. I had to keep my head clear, Bella needed me to keep my wits about me.

Taking a deep breath, I started to check all her vitals. The pulse was strong and steady, but her skin felt cold and clammy. Her breathing was unrestrained, but she wasn't moving. Not even a flutter from her fingers nor her eyes. The stillness was making me nervous.

I just sat beside Bella, holding her hand and watching her as she lay still on the ground. When I heard the sirens approaching. I took a deep and shaky breath. The feeling of relief almost knocked me over, she would get professional help now. Bella was on the gurney and inside the ambulance in no time, and thankfully no one protested when I climbed inside the ambulance and sat down by Bella's head. The EMT guy had her hooked up to various machines before we even started driving towards the hospital.

When we got to the hospital, they whisked Bella away from me. I wasn't allowed to follow her where she was going, and I could feel the panic grasp at me again. Refusing to give in to it, I tried to distract myself. _Alice! I can call Alice! _I knew Alice was Bella's best friend in town, she should be here.

"Alice? Hi, this is Edward Cullen," I said, rather shakily.

"_Mr. Cullen. Hi. What can I do for you?" _She sounded really chipper, I hated that I would ruin her mood with what I had to tell her.

"I hate to say this over the phone, but Bella fainted and hit her head, we're at the hospital," the line went silent and I checked my phone to see if I was still connected, I was, "Alice? You there?"

"_What hospital are you at?" _Alice demanded, startling me a little. I gave her the details and hung up the phone. Not quite sure what to do with myself, I went looking for someone who would tell me what was going on with Bella.

Getting anything of value out of hospital staff in Los Angeles was harder than getting a convict out of jail. No one was telling me anything. I felt my frustrations grow, and I kept on shoving my hands through my hair, a bad habit that got worse when I felt out of control. I was ready to kill someone for information when I heard Alice.

"Edward!" I turned around and saw an Alice that looked even more frantic than I was currently feeling, "Where is Bella? How is she?"

I sighed and closed my eyes for a second, "I have no idea. None of these morons will tell me anything. Worthless idiots!" I said that last part loud knowing everyone at the nurse station would hear me.

It was as if Alice grew a foot while I watched her. The Queen of War had entered the building, and she would stop at nothing to get the information she wanted. It took Alice less than 5 minutes to find out where Bella was, who her doctor was, and what was wrong. Knowing what she needed to know, Alice walked by me and latched onto my sleeve, dragging me behind her. I wanted to tell her it wasn't necessary, that I would follow her willingly, but one look at her straight spine, and I decided it would be best to keep my mouth shut. Bella had warned me about 'Angry Alice'.

Alice stopped her stride in front of a closed door and turned to me, "I have some good news for you, the doctor treating Bella is a Dr. Cullen. I'm guessing your family?" she looked at me, but didn't wait for confirmation before she walked into Bella's room.

I took a deep breath and followed Alice inside. Bella had given me a big scare when she fainted like she did and didn't wake up immediately, so I was anxious to see her well. I had sworn I would protect Bella and the baby, and I had failed. It made me feel unfamiliar feelings. But before I had any more time to think about it, the door opened up behind me. Without even turning around I knew it was Dr. Carlisle Cullen, my father. I would recognize his footsteps anywhere. I took a deep breath, feeling relieved, I knew that Bella was in good hands with Carlisle.

"Hey, dad," I said without taking my eyes off Bella, who was sitting up and whispering with Alice about something.

"Edward! What are you doing here? You know Miss Swan?"

I turned around and looked at Carlisle, feeling a little guilty for not having seen my parents for a few months now, "I guess I have some explaining to do," I said sheepishly. Carlisle pursed his lips and looked at me thoughtfully, clearly uncertain what I was to Bella, "Look dad, it's a long story, but Bella was with me when she fainted."

I saw Carlisle looked towards the bed, and I followed his gaze. Bella looked well. She had some color back on her face. Alice looked both a little annoyed and concerned as she was talking softly with Bella. Both girls turned and looked at me and Carlisle as they both stopped talking looking a little awkward.

Carlisle nodded at my last remark, and looked down at the chart in his hands, before looking up at Bella, "Well miss Swan, you hit your head pretty hard when you fell today, so you will have to be on bed rest for a couple days, or at least until you have regained your strength. That means no work, even from home." Bella just nodded and I was relieved she didn't argue that.

**BPOV**

I was relieved to see Alice walk into my room. It had been a little scary to wake up at the hospital alone. Seeing a friendly face made me relax.

"Hey Alice, I'm so glad you're here," I said before she hugged me.

"Oh Bella," she sighed, "I've been telling you you've been working too hard!" She looked at me with worry in her eyes, "I'm willing to bet you haven't changed your eating habits since we talked about it the last time, have you?"

I shrugged my shoulders while refusing to look at Alice, "I haven't had time to cook, and you know I've had crazy hours. I just haven't had time to worry too much about it." I looked at Alice, begging for understanding.

"Bella..." she gave me a stern look before continuing, "you're pregnant, you need to eat! And you must let Angela take over the responsibilities, she's more than ready. You've taught her well. Stop worrying so much about work, and worry more about you and the baby."

"I know, hon. I promise, I'll cut back on work, and I'll start cooking for myself," I gave Alice a weak smile, but she wasn't buying it. I guess I would have to prove it to her, and Edward, that I could take care of myself. Sighing, I looked at Edward and the doctor standing by the door talking quietly, the older man was apparently Edward's dad, and it made me wonder if Cullen Sr knew about Cullen Jr being the one who knocked me up. _Knocked up. _That made me snicker.

"What happened?" I asked them when they both looked at me.

It was Edward who answered my question, "You fainted outside our apartment building and hit your head pretty hard."

I sighed, "Yeah, that sounds like something I would do. So when can I go home?"

"You're an impatient one, " Dr. Cullen grinned, "We don't know yet. We have to do a full checkup first before that is decided." I nodded, suddenly feeling very gloom. "I have a couple questions for you about how you were feeling before you fainted."

I had to think about that one for a little, "I remember feeling chills, and clammy. I also remember I couldn't breathe, it made me feel a little panicked."

"Have you been working a lot lately, and have you been eating properly," he was looking at me, with what I assumed to be my chart in one hand, and a pen in the other.

Pulling my hands out of Alice's grasp, I rubbed my face. I knew I would be in trouble, "I have had extra long days for the past few weeks. On top of my regular workload, I've had to train someone else to take over my position when I'm unable to work because of the pregnancy," throwing a quick glance at Edward before looking back at Dr. Cullen, I cringed when I thought about my eating habits, "Because of the crazy workload lately, I haven't had time to have proper meals. Mostly I've just been snacking throughout the day," I looked down at my fiddling hands as I said that last thing."

"What about at home at the end of the day? Do you eat dinner?" Dr. Cullen asked.

"Um... Well... Usually I'm so tired and exhausted after work that I just crash when I come home. I'm asleep within minutes after I've let myself in," I was looking anywhere but at the people in my room.

I could see Edward tense up, and the older Cullen looked pretty exasperated too, "Miss Swan," _uh-oh, he didn't sound happy with me, _"you are pregnant. You're not just feeding yourself. You are literally eating for two! The right thing to do would be to order you to remain in the hospital for a couple of days to ensure that you get some nutrients in you and the baby before we release you."

I was stumped. I didn't know what to say. Of course I knew I had been working too much and eating too little. Bending my head down, and hiding my face in my hands, I got why Dr. Cullen was so fired up. _I was carrying his grandchild._

"Don't worry about it, dad. Once we get her out of here, she's not going back to work, and I'll be making sure she eats properly. Now that I know what the problem is, she isn't getting off the hook that easily." Edward sounded a little strangled, like he was trying to control his temper. Looking at him, I was suddenly worried. I realized that I didn't know this man, I didn't know if he had any anger issues.

**EPOV**

I couldn't believe that Bella had been that reckless with herself and our baby. The long hours training her assistant, I could understand, but neglecting to eat proper meals throughout the day, that shit made me angry. I looked at Bella, and saw her cringe at my anger. Great, on top of everything I was now scaring her. I tried to calm myself down, there was no need for her to be afraid of me. I might be angry, but I wasn't stupid or violent. I closed my eyes and took deep, calming breaths.

I was exhausted, the scare and all the worrying was keeping my nerves on edge. Finding out that she had been careless about her health, was the last drop that made the glass overflow. I knew I was angry for no reason, I knew that Bella was all right, but the frustrations I was feeling made it hard to keep all the emotions that were crashing against each other under control. I really wanted to pick up something heavy and throw it against the wall to release some of the tension I was feeling. But seeing how I had scared Bella just by looking angry, that would probably be a bad idea.

"Edward, do you mind stepping outside with me?" Carlisle asked me, pulling me out of my thoughts. I looked at Alice sitting with Bella and figured I could leave them for a few minutes. I didn't want to let Bella out of my sight, but I knew Carlisle had questions he wanted to ask me in private, so I nodded and followed him out of the room.

We stopped once we made sure we weren't within hearing range to Bella's room. Carlisle was looking down at the chart he had in his hand, fiddling with the papers, clearly not sure where or how to begin his new set of questions. I didn't want to stay out here and waste more time than I had to, "What did you want to talk to me about?" I asked to get him started.

Carlisle looked at me as if he'd never seen me before, and still hesitant to ask me the questions I knew were burning at the tip of his tongue, "Yes, dad, Bella is carrying my child," I said impatiently.

"And when were you planning on informing your mother and me about this?" he asked after taking a deep breath.

Running my hands through my hair for the umpteenth time today, I tried to put together words that would make sense, "Dad, it's a really long story, but basically I wanted to sort things out with Bella first before we told anyone about this."

He let out a small chuckle, which took me by surprise, "By the looks of things, Bella is at least four to five months along, you don't have to tell people anymore. That train kinda left the station a while ago," Carlisle said with a smile.

"Things with me and Bella... well... they haven't been easy. Still aren't," I said, not sure how to explain the whole thing. I looked back towards Bella's room, anxious to get back to her.

"All right Edward, I'll stop trying to drag the answers out of you right now, I see that you want to get back to her," Carlisle sighed, "but once Bella is back on her feet again, your mother and I are expecting the two of you for dinner. Soon," he said and put his arm on my shoulder, squeezing it. I just nodded, agreeing, and walked back to Bella's room.

**BPOV**

Alice and I had been talking about fainting, ending up at the hospital, and about work when Edward came back. I was anxious to get out of here, "Did he say when I could leave?"

He shook his head, "No, he didn't say anything. But he's preparing your tests, I guess once they have the results, we'll be out of here in no time."

I sighed, I wanted to be anywhere but here. I had spent enough time at hospitals. Being as clumsy as me, I had been a frequent guest at the local hospitals. My hospital memories were anything but good. There was a lot of pain involved in these visits. Being clumsy and hurting myself over and over again, included a lot of pain. I'd had more stitches than anyone should have in five lifetimes. I'd plucked on more scabs than there were people in Phoenix, where I grew up. I'd twisted my ankles so many times, it was a small wonder I was able to walk at all. No, hospitals did not hold any good memories for me.

The three of us stayed in my room, talking about nothing of importance, when Dr. Cullen came back. They were ready for me to do some tests. Sighing, I got off the bed with a little help from Edward, and sat down in the wheelchair before being wheeled to unknown parts of the hospital.

When they were done poking and pinching me, and sticking me black and blue with needles, I was wheeled back to my room, where only Edward was waiting for me.

"Where is Alice?" I asked.

"She had to leave for an audition, she'll be back after. She'll come by the apartment if we're out of here before she's back." He looked exhausted and tired. I guess I had given him quite a scare today.

We were just sitting in my room, an uncomfortable silence surrounding us, when Dr. Cullen came back, "Please tell me I can go home now," I looked expectantly at him.

He grinned, "You can go home. We didn't find anything too out of the ordinary in the tests. We don't have the results to all the tests yet, but we'll be in touch with you when those come back." I was just relieved I could go home, but Dr. Cullen wasn't done talking just yet, "Miss Swan..."

"Bella, please," I cut him off.

"All right, Bella. We did find that your vitamin and mineral levels were a little on the low side of things. I'm going to prescribe some pills you'll need to take for a while, and then come back for new blood work to make sure those levels are on the rise." I just nodded, relieved it was nothing that wasn't fixable. Dr. Cullen smiled at me, "Now, you can go home."

I was dressed and on my way out of the hospital in no time. I was ecstatic to be able to go home. Edward had come with me in the ambulance, so we took a cab back to the apartment. We were quiet on the ride home, I just knew Edward wasn't done with whatever was bothering him. I could feel the tension radiating from him, and it was bothering me. I was in love with him, he was gorgeous, he had gotten me pregnant, I was living with him – but I did not know the man sitting next to me. Not really. And it made me feel a little uneasy.

**EPOV**

Bella didn't say a word on the ride home. But I could tell from her glances towards me that she was feeling uneasy. _Good! _She had done such a stupid thing. I knew it was partly my fault for not paying attention to her, but she was always asleep when I got home. That should have told me that something wasn't right. I was angry with Bella for pushing herself too far, and I was angry with myself for not seeing what really was happening right in front of me.

The cab stopped and I paid the driver, helping Bella out, I left my hand on the small of her back as she walked towards our home. I wasn't about to take any more chances with her. If she tripped, I was going to catch her this time. Bella didn't protest my hand on her back, and nothing was said on the ride in the elevator either. But when we stepped out of the carriage, we could hear voices coming from the kitchen. I looked at Bella, and she looked just as surprised as I did. I motioned to her to stay behind me and stay quiet. I had no idea who was here, then we heard a high pitched laughter, _Alice._

We walked into the kitchen not to find only Alice, but Jasper and Emmett as well. Bella looked at the mess on all the counters, "Um guys? What are you doing?" she asked.

"What does it look like, silly?" Alice asked, pointing at something, "We're making you dinner of course!"

Bella walked over to Alice and tasted whatever was cooking, "This needs a little more salt," she grinned down at her friend. Then she turned at looked at Emmett and Jasper, "And what are you two doing here?"

"Come on, Bells, we were worried about you!" Emmett boomed from his seat by the island. Jasper didn't say anything, he just nodded before looking back to..._Alice?_ I looked back and forth between the two, understanding suddenly dawning down on me. There was something going on with these two.

I sighed quietly and turned to walk back to the living room, my talk with Bella would have to wait until everyone had gone home. Pinching my nose, I felt the entire tension move its way to my head. I could feel the headache loom in the background, and I figured it was just as well that I was forced to do this later. It would give me time to calm down. Just as I was leaving the kitchen, I heard the elevator ping. _Now what? _I thought to myself. I looked up and saw Rosalie walk in, she was wearing a tight, red mini-dress and her red fuck-me shoes. I knew Bella and Rose didn't get along, so this was just _perfect._

Dragging Rosalie with me back to the kitchen to introduce her to the others, I walked in on Bella crying against Emmett's shoulder, and him looking at me as if he wanted to kill me. I had been gone for two minutes, what had happened?

**A/N: **Please, don't hesitate to take a look at my pimping lists both _here_ and in my _profile_ - a lot of good stories linked there that deserve to be read by everyone. Again I want to thank you for reading and being so patient with me ladies and gents. Especially thank you to those who reviewed, you all have kept that special place in my heart!


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **Yes. It's finally here. I don't write fights that well, so this took a while. It's far from my longest chapter, but it does have a nice cliffy for ya'll. ;) No big temper tantrums this time, but I did not give **Keyla** too much time with the beta'ing - so if you do find typos or other grammatical mistakes, it's all on me. She _did _tell me to post at own risk, I'm just happy she took time out of her busy life and fixed a couple things with this chapter. If you need a beta, she is the girl to go to!!

**Pimping** my girls as again. When you're done here, go over to read **Prove me innocent** by Ezzery/Keyla, it has twists and turns that leave me breathless; **A life undone** by Monksmama/Dena, about second chances at life, something I sometimes wish I had; **Through your eyes** by Megsly/Megan, it's nearing its end and it's making me sad that there will be no more, just remember your box of Kleenex.

**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters.

**EPOV**

Why was Bella crying? And why was Emmett looking at me like he wanted to kill me? What had I done now? I looked at the people in my kitchen, not understanding anything of what had happened in less than two minutes. Had I said something? I couldn't remember saying anything in particular. Or doing anything. Had I been rude somehow? "What's wrong?" I asked the group in general.

I watched Bella shaking in Emmett's arms, and him trying to soothe her. Jasper was looking at a spot somewhere on the wall opposite him, and Alice was looking at me with a sad look in her eyes. "Well?" I asked.

Alice took a big, visible sigh and came up to me, "You scared her today. You were seething at the hospital earlier, and on the ride here. We're worried about you and Bella."

Comprehension dawned on me, "Ooh...yeah, I was angry. But Bella wasn't the source for my anger. Not the sole source anyway. I was mostly angry with myself for not paying enough attention to her, and her eating habits and how much she's been working."

Emmett handed Bella over to Jasper and stood up from his chair, "What do you mean 'not the sole source'?" He looked livid.

I ran my hands through my hair, I really didn't want to have an out with Emmett, I didn't know the guy. But by the look of his stance, he was not going to back down from this. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I tried to take a deep breath, "Bella has been working insane hours, she doesn't eat proper meals, I know she's drinking coffee, and she's always asleep by eight. She's not taking care of herself, and that is making me angry. I'm sorry!" I almost shouted that last part.

"If you knew she was doing this, why the hell didn't you stop her? Why didn't you talk to one of us about it if you couldn't handle it yourself?" Emmett growled at me.

"I didn't connect the dots until she was at the hospital, all right Emmett?" I was shouting now.

"The whole reason for Bella moving in with you was to make things easier on her, look at her now!" Emmett was yelling even louder than me. He had bigger lungs.

"Fuck off, Emmett! Why the hell didn't you or Alice or Jasper check up on her? Why is it suddenly my fault?"

"We thought you were taking care of her! Now that I know you're not, I'll personally make sure she is all right," Emmett was now waving his arms around, nearly striking Bella who was too close to him.

"Watch your fucking arms, Emmett! You nearly hit Bella just now!" I would beat him to a pulp if he hit Bella, even if it was accidentally. Obviously Emmett was bigger than me, but I was certain I could take him given the right incentive.

Emmett took a step away from Bella and tried to calm himself down. I ran both my hands through my hair, probably making it stand even more on end, and turned around to face Rosalie who had been standing quietly in the doorway, observing the whole exchange. Rose met my eyes and gave me a big grin. She was clearly enjoying this. Turning back again to the others, I looked at every single one of them. _How had this gone so wrong so quickly?_

Sighing, I walked over to the fridge to grab a bottle of water, my head was in utter chaos and I couldn't make sense of anything anymore. How had I ended up here? This morning we had been fine, and now I was freaking Bella out.

I took a huge swig from the bottle, and felt the cold water hit my stomach. I realized we hadn't eaten anything all day.

"Bella hasn't had anything to eat today, neither have I, so I'm going to order Chinese, anyone else want anything?" I asked the room as I grabbed my phone.

The tension in the air cleared out a little as everyone tried to figure out what they wanted to eat. I knew what I wanted and I had a pretty good idea what Bella wanted, so I leaned on the kitchen counter and observed everyone talking on top of each other. Even Rose had joined the others and was discussing with Alice what to get.

An eerie quiet settled upon my apartment as I called in our orders to the Chinese place around the corner. I hung up the phone and looked at everyone, finally letting my eyes rest on Bella, wondering what was going on in her mind. She was more of a mystery to me now than she had been before I had gotten to know her. I just couldn't figure her out.

**BPOV**

I could feel Edward stare at me, and gazing at him from the corner of my eyes I saw his face was confused more than anything else. I knew he had no idea why the fuck I had been crying. How could I explain to him, and everyone else for that matter, that it was just my hormones wrecking havoc with me? Actually, hormones combined with exhaustion, no food and him _kinda _freaking me out with his anger earlier today.

I felt stupid, I knew he wasn't _really _angry with me. I had understood what his anger had been about, and honestly I hadn't been _that _scared. But once Edward had left the kitchen, everything just came crashing down on me and I started crying. I hadn't wanted to. It was as if someone had hit a switch and started the waterworks without my consent.

Of course, Emmett being Emmett, he'd had a strong reaction to my tears. He was like papa bear protecting his 'family'. I wanted to take back the tears and take away the awkward situation that had occurred because of me crying. Everyone hated my tears, well, everyone but Edward's blond. What the hell was she doing in my home anyway?

I heard a screeching sound in my head, like a needle to vinyl, when the hell had I started to think of Edward's apartment as _my home? _My home was my own apartment. I was only here temporary. And Edward was free to bring home whoever he wanted to. I didn't like Rose and she didn't like me, but she was his friend. His only friend, in fact. Who was I to deny Edward his friend? No matter how skanky she looked.

The silence in the kitchen was awkward. Everyone was glancing at everyone else, just waiting for someone to say something. Sighing, I knew the only way to clear out the air was to talk to Edward. I couldn't hide away from it. Stepping around Emmett, I looked directly at Edward, "Can we talk for a minute?" I asked.

He just nodded, so I said, "Alone," and walked out of the kitchen towards my bedroom. I wanted to get away from all prying ears. It was bad enough having to explain the tears to Edward. Explaining to everyone else would have to wait. I closed the door and leaned on it when Edward was inside my room, "About the crying..." I started, unsure how to say the rest of it, averting my gaze from his face.

Edward looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to continue. Feeling tongue tied, I started chewing on my lower lip, I felt like such a moron.

"What about the crying," Edward sighed.

I could feel the blush creep up my face, "Well..." I drew out the word before looking at him, "Emmett kinda overreacted. He doesn't know what the crying really was about." I paused, hating having to admit this out loud.

Edward sighed and pinched his nose at the bridge, I had noticed he did that when he was frustrated, "What was the crying really about, Bella?"

"Oh God, this is really embarrassing. Myhormoneswereplayinggameswithmyemotions," I said as quickly and quietly as I could.

"What was that?" Edward looked confused.

Taking a deep breath I repeated slower, "My hormones were playing games with my emotions." I looked at Edward's face, trying to gauge his reaction. "Actually, it was a combination of hormones, exhaustion, hunger, and your temper earlier today," I said, cringing.

I saw comprehension dawn on Edward, "Of course..."

"Sorry."

Then Edward started laughing. I had never heard him laugh like this. With deep belly laughs. I knew my reaction had been stupid and funny, but was it ha-ha funny? I watched Edward bend over from laughing so hard, wondering if he had finally snapped because of me and my strange mood swings.

"Oh Bella," he finally sighed, getting his laughing under control, "I should have known it was hormones on top of a very stressful day. I mean, it's not like you haven't had some crazy moods. No offense, but your mood swings could give anyone a whiplash," he chuckled at the last sentence.

I wasn't offended, I knew my mood swings were insane, "I'm sorry," I whispered.

He came closer to me and wrapped his arms around me, giving me a warm hug, "We just need to make sure we talk about these things," he looked at me with his beautiful crooked smile, "and we'll be fine. You scared me a little with the crying and Emmett threatening to beat the crap out of me. But I guess I kinda deserved that after scaring you at the hospital."

I was staring at Edward's lips, wanting desperately to kiss them. I could barely remember how it felt kissing Edward, and I wanted to remind myself. I was totally lost in my freaky hormones going haywire on me, and didn't notice Edward was staring at me just as intently.

"Bella?" he whispered, pulling me out of my lustful thoughts, my eyes snapped up to his and I could see the fire burning deep in his green orbs. Holding my gaze he was leaning down to me, _oh God, he's going to kiss me, _I thought, feeling excitement course through me. Closing my eyes, I waited anxiously to feel Edward's lips on mine.

"Bella?" and a knock on the door. _Alice. _Edward let go of me and was three steps away from me before I could even open up my eyes. I had never contemplated murder before, but I would have gladly killed Alice at that moment.

**EPOV**

The knock on the door and Alice calling Bella's name had woken me up from the trance like state I had been in. I wanted to both strangle and thank Alice for the interruption. I was dying to kiss Bella again, but I didn't want to do it with the house full of our friends. If that kiss were to lead to something more than just kissing, I wanted to be alone with her.

Running my hands through my hair, I watched as Bella turned crimson before she turned to open up the door to let Alice in, "What is it Alice?" she asked.

"Food is here," Alice said looking from Bella to me and back again.

"Yeah, we'll be right there," I told Alice, wanting her to get out of here so I could talk to Bella.

"I'm sorry, but none of us has enough cash on us to pay for the food..." Alice said apologetically.

"There is take out money in the top drawer by the fridge, take whatever you need from there," I couldn't believe it was lack of cash that had interrupted me kissing Bella. _Just as well, _I thought. After one more quizzical look at Bella, Alice left the room.

"I'm famished, can we finish talking later?" Bella said as she turned to leave the room as well.

I just nodded my head, knowing I couldn't deny Bella a proper meal after what she had been through today. I wasn't about to starve her and the baby just so I could kiss her. Face it, the 'talking' later on would be about kissing.

By the time I got to the kitchen everyone was surrounding the bags of food, trying to grab what was theirs. I stopped by the door and watched with amusement as five grownups acted like hungry wolves.

As the food was devoured, the atmosphere in the kitchen was one of easy banter. Who would have thought that food would calm the tempers. Sitting back and observing everyone, I realized that everyone's blood sugar must have been at a dangerous low. With that realization I wasn't surprised that tempers had flared. I shook the thoughts off and joined in on the banter.

The rest of the meal went without a hitch. Bella was in much better spirits after the meal, and Emmett, seeing that Bella was so calm, started to calm down as well. He was soon his usual loud funny self, cracking up everyone with his tales of Hollywood. After the meal, everyone moved into the living room, I hung back to make coffee and tea, and when I walked into the living room with the beverages, I made an interesting observation.

Jasper and Alice were sharing one of the love seats, they were talking quietly, staring each other deeply in the eyes. Rosalie and Emmett had taken the other love seat and had a pretty loud discussion about cars. That made me smile. I was glad Rose had found someone just as passionate about cars as her. That left Bella sitting alone in the big sofa and being the only one actually paying any attention to the movie that was on. She looked small and fragile sitting at the end of the sofa, leaning on the armrest.

Putting all the mugs down on the coffee table, I handed her the tea and sat down next to Bella who accepted her mug with a grateful smile. Looking more closely at Bella's face, I noticed that her eyes had shadows underneath them and her smile was a little forced.

"You all right, Bella?" I asked.

"Yeah..." she sighed, "Just a little exhausted. It's been an...interesting...day," she grimaced.

I chuckled, "You could say that." I took a sip of my coffee and sighed, "Bella, you've had a long day, why don't you go ahead and go to bed, and I'll get rid of this lot once everyone's had their coffee. Sound good to you?"

She just nodded, put her tea down and got up from the sofa. None of the others even noticed Bella leaving the room until she turned around and bid everyone good night. Alice jumped off the love seat and followed Bella to her bedroom. I was guessing she wanted to make sure Bella was all right.

After Alice and Bella disappeared, Emmett and Rosalie got up to leave together. I didn't even want to know about that, but I doubted they were going home alone. Jasper hung around and waited for Alice, claiming he didn't want her to walk alone during the night. _Yeah. _My guess was they weren't going home alone either.

When Alice finally emerged from Bella's bedroom, she gave me a look I wasn't able to read, grabbed Jasper's arm, and they both left. In the now suddenly quiet apartment, I walked around and cleaned up a little bit. I was tired to my bones, but I had too many things going through my mind to be able to sleep. After I had done what I could do, I was standing by the window in the living room and stared at the city skylight. Los Angeles was beautiful at night, when all the grime and all the dirt was masked by the dark.

A sound behind me jerked me out of my thoughts, and I spun around to find Bella standing behind me, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

"Bella! What are you still doing up?" I asked, taking in the sight of her. She was wearing close to nothing. Her boy shorts and tiny tank top left nothing to the imagination and I could feel myself harden. _She literally looks edible, _I thought to myself.

"I...um..." she stammered, "I was just getting myself some water," she finally said and pointed towards the kitchen.

"Oh..." I said, unable to tear my eyes off of her.

Bella made no movement towards the kitchen, and I felt myself being pulled towards Bella, like a magnet. Not able to help myself, I inched closer and closer to Bella, until I finally was standing right in front of her. Still looking at her, I could feel her breath on me as she exhaled. So slowly it felt like torture I leaned in closer, when her gaze fell on my lips, I pounced. Devouring her lips I kissed as if I had never kissed before. I was a drowning man, happy to let go.

When Bella responded to my kiss, I could feel my soul burn. As I deepened the kiss, I felt her arms snake their way around my neck and her hands grabbed onto my hair. I growled as I felt Bella pull at my hair, it felt amazing. Letting my hands slide down Bella's back and to her ass made her whimper and I couldn't help the sigh escaping me. One of my hands continued its way down to her leg, hiking it up and around me.

Grabbing onto Bella's ass and lifting her up, she quickly caught on to what I wanted and hiked her legs around my waist. I could feel her bump between us, holding her tightly to me I broke the kiss, leaving both of us panting hard. I rested my forehead to Bella's and looked her in the eyes, I didn't want to do anything she wasn't ready for. It would be hard to let her go, but it was up to Bella how far she wanted to take this.

"You know how badly I want you, Bella. But this is up to you," I said, closing my eyes.

**A/N: **I am working on next chapters both for this one and for **The Roadtrip**. I am eternally grateful for every single reader here, and yes, reviews make this girl happy, but are not necessary. ;)


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **Please don't hate me for taking forever with this chapter - but who knew how hard it would be to write a lemon?

_I want to dedicate this chapter to Keyla who recently was in a horrible accident that by a miracle alone didn't claim her life. Even drugged up and in a lot of pain, she found the strength to be the beta and check for my usual mistakes. Down for the count, and she's still strong enough to hold my hand through this. A girl could not ask for a better friend. Thank you for being mine._

**Pimping** my girls as again. When you're done here, go over to read **Prove me innocent** by Ezzery/Keyla, it has twists and turns that leave me breathless; **A life undone** by Monksmama/Dena, about second chances at life, something I sometimes wish I had; **Horizons** by Megsly/Megan, it is not your traditional story, and even if you hate the beginning of it, keep reading, and you'll get a wonderful surprise.

**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters.

**EPOV**

"_You know how badly I want you, Bella. But this is up to you," I said, closing my eyes. _I felt her sweet breath on me as I waited anxiously for her answer. Bella didn't say anything, but I felt her hands leave my hair and slide to my shoulders. I felt my heart plummet, she didn't want this. Then I felt her hands cup my face and I opened my eyes to look at her. When I opened my eyes, Bella leaned back in and kissed me. A sweet kiss that made my heart soar.

Without hesitating another moment, I walked us both to my bedroom and sat down at the edge of my bed. Never letting go of Bella, she was straddling me effectively giving her the upper hand, and she didn't hesitate in using it. Pushing me down on the bed, she wriggled a little and made herself comfortable on top of me. Leaning down, she gave me a kiss that made every thought I had fly out of my mind. All I could feel, were her lips on mine and her tongue in my mouth.

When she broke away I felt a sense of loss. She leaned up a little, resting her arms on me, and looked at me, "Are we really doing this?" she asked me. I tried to read her, but she had her poker face on and I had no idea what she was thinking.

I sighed and put my arms around her, twisting so that we were laying on our sides looking at each other, "Only if you want to, only if you're comfortable with us doing this."

"What if we mess this up?"

Looking at her, I realized she wasn't saying she didn't want me, she was worried we'd somehow end up ruining what we already had. Leaning my forehead to hers, I pulled her closer to me, "Bella, with how much we've already messed things up, it can't get much worse." Leaning back a bit, I studied her eyes, understanding that she needed some sort of reassurance. I lifted one of my hands and played with her hair, "I have wanted to get to know you ever since the first time I saw you, and the more I saw you, the more I _wanted _you. Getting to know you, having you here, has only made me want you that much more. That is not going to go away, at least not for me," I said cupping her face.

Bella just nodded her head, never taking her eyes off me. As I was looking into her eyes, I saw the change. They went from dark and mysterious, to burning with a fire that made my head spin, "Are we really going to do this?" she asked timidly.

I couldn't help my wolfish grin, "Oh we are so doing this Miss Swan," I said before attacking her lips. I felt more than heard Bella groan into my mouth, and that was all I needed. Kissing her senseless, I started to tear at her clothes, unable to get them off of her fast enough. I could feel Bella frantically trying to get me out of my clothes. Pulling a little away from her but never stopping the kiss, I quickly shed my clothes.

Once I was rid of the restraints to my body, I tore Bella's clothes off, probably ruining several garments in the process. But I didn't care. I couldn't care. It had been too long. Still kissing Bella, I knelt down between her now open legs and she had her legs around my waist in a flash, trying to pull me down to her. I tried to pull away, worried about crushing her and the baby, "Easy, Bella," I took a deep breath, "I could hurt the baby," with that she let the vice grip of her legs go.

**BPOV**

I couldn't believe Edward was pulling back because he was afraid of crushing the baby. Sighing, I let go of his waist, as he relaxed and I quickly threw my arms and legs around him, and twisted us around so that I was on top of him. He looked bewildered, which made me grin, "Well, well, well, Mr. Cullen. That's quite a predicament you find your self in, isn't it?" I said, leaning down to him.

Getting over his initial surprise, Edward put his arms behind his head and grinned up at me, "Well miss, seems you like being in charge, so I'm going to just lay back here and enjoy the ride..." he drawled with a wicked glint in his eyes.

"Oh... I see... So you're intending that I, a pregnant woman, do all the work, huh?" I said as I wriggled my ass further down, closer to his dick. I heard Edward catch his breath and his hands came out from under his head and towards me, "Oh no, hands off!" I grinned at him and sat up. I could see his hands twitch, wanting to touch me, before he put them back behind his head with a wide smile on his face. He had an expectant look in his eyes, waiting for my next move.

Looking at Edward looking at me, it hit me like a speeding train, I had no idea what I was doing here. I'd only had a few boyfriends, and they had barely gone beyond the missionary. Last time I'd had sex had been months ago. With Edward. And that had been a disaster. What if I messed this up even more? I started to climb off Edward when his arms shot out and he held on to me.

"Where are you going?" he looked a little worried.

I hid my face in my hands, "I'm sorry Edward, but I have no idea what the hell I'm doing here," I could feel my face turn every shade of red behind my hands. I wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it. Edward pulled me closer to him, I could feel his lips at the top of my head. We just stayed that way, saying nothing. I was grateful that Edward was sensitive to my insecurities. He made me feel safe. But I was also incredibly horny and frustrated. I wanted to take matters into my own hands, so to speak, but my doubts kept me from doing anything. Anything but enjoy Edward's closeness. Feeling safe in his embrace, I fell asleep.

**EPOV**

It was hard to believe that someone as beautiful as Bella would feel so insecure about herself. Her eyes and her face had told me far more than her words. She had retracted into herself, and I had known I had been about to lose her to her self doubts. So I had done the only thing I could think of, I just held on to her for dear life. As Bella fell asleep, I relaxed and felt myself drift off to sleep as well.

Some time during the night I had a very vivid dream about Bella giving me a blowjob. I groaned in my sleep. My own groan made me startle awake. The sight that met me was almost identical to my dream. Bella's head was bobbing up and down, her mouth warm and tight as she worked her magic.

The sight made me groan, and Bella lifted her gaze to my eyes at the sound I made. When I saw the fire in her eyes I just grabbed onto the sheets and couldn't take my eyes off of her. My intense stare made Bella smile. I could see the corners of her mouth quirk up a little.

With the feel of Bella's mouth on me and the visual, it didn't take long before I felt the warm burn in my lower abdomen, I was close to coming.

"Bella," I croaked, my throat dry, "I'm about to..." I didn't say more words as I felt Bella's hand tugging lightly on my balls. The sensation made me shoot into her mouth. As I was riding out my orgasm, I felt one of her fingers press hard on that sensitive spot between the ass and the cock. It made the orgasm that much more intense.

I was totally spent when Bella let go of me and crawled up my body. She didn't say anything, but found her now familiar spot on top of my chest. She said absolutely nothing, just kept her gaze locked with mine. A small smile was playing on her lips.

"What are you thinking?" I asked her. She didn't say anything, just shook her head before laying her head down on my chest, just beneath my chin.

I wrapped my arms around Bella's torso, and just laid there pondering about her, me, the baby, our lives, and about the most intense orgasm I've had in a very long time. _How did she know that trick?_

Kissing the top of Bella's head, I thought about the fact that I still hadn't made love to Bella. Our first time had been hurried and she had run off right after. There had been no repeats since. It was too much of a crime that I had found my release and she hadn't. I had to rectify that.

I rolled us both over to the side. Not saying anything I let my hand run from Bella's neck, down her arm and to her hip, where I let it rest. Leaning in to her, I kissed her softly on her mouth, letting my lips massage hers. I felt Bella's hand run up to my neck where she grabbed onto my hair and pulled my head closer to hers. I deepened the kiss, letting the sensations take over.

Bella was moaning into my mouth as her body was trying to get closer to mine. While Bella tried to mold herself to me, an idea started to form in my head. Maybe there was a way to do this without crushing Bella and the baby, and without making her self conscious about having to take the lead. Letting my hand slide from her hip to her knee, I hiked her leg over my hip.

Pulling away from the searing kiss, I looked at her, "Bella, do you still want to do this?" I had to know. She looked at me before she nodded. Going back to kissing her, I slowly let my hand between us. Touching Bella's core, I found her dripping wet. Which made me moan loudly. Inserting a finger into her, I felt Bella trying to push herself even closer to me.

Removing my hand, I grabbed onto my dick and positioned myself at her entrance, "Bella, I want you to look at me," I whispered. I locked my gaze to hers and entered her slowly, letting her adjust to my size. It had been a while for the both of us.

**BPOV**

Edward had wanted me to open up my eyes. As soon as I looked him in the eyes, he entered me. I found myself suck in a breath. When he was fully in me, Edward stopped moving. I felt myself adjust to his size. _God, it's been too long. _When he felt me relax, he started to move slowly in and out of me. Still holding my gaze, he leaned back in to capture my lips. I couldn't help it, I closed my eyes, wanting to absorb every sensation.

I was so horny and worked up from not having had any for so long, I knew it wouldn't take long for me to come. Pulling slightly away from Edward's lips, I whispered, "Faster, please," before attaching my lips back on his. I felt the buildup, but it wasn't enough, "More" I begged. I felt Edward's hand between us, one of his fingers found my clit and started to rub it gently. It didn't take many seconds before I was flying high. A few more pushes, and I felt Edward come inside me.

Edward didn't pull out immediately, instead we just stayed where we were holding onto each other. I was still trying to come down from the very earth shattering orgasm. None of us said anything. I was just basking in Edward's warm embrace. I felt Edward shift his hips, the movement turning me on and making me groan. At the sound of my groan, I could feel Edward getting hard again inside me. I couldn't stop the chuckle that left me, "Again?"

Edward just smirked, "You keep making those sexy noises, and it's going to be a very long night."

The thought of more of this made me giggle like a school girl, "Promises, promises," I quipped. I couldn't help myself.

When I woke up the next morning, I was sore. Sore and confused about where I was. As I was waiting for the fog to lift from my brain, I felt movement behind me. Everything came rushing back to me like a speeding train. My fainting, the hospital, the fight, the sex. _Oh god, the sex..._ Taking a deep breath, I slowly turned around and came face to face with Edward. He was still sleeping.

Lying next to Edward staring at him, I felt the sudden urge to pee. Usually I got up in the middle of the night to relieve myself, but last night there had been no 'bathroom breaks'. No wonder my bladder felt like it was about to explode. I tried to get out of bed without waking up Edward, without much luck. As soon as I sat up I heard a hoarse "Good morning."

Turning my head back towards him, I only managed a shy "Hi."

"Where you going?"

"Bathroom," I felt my face go red at that. I'd had very hot sex with the man last night, and I blushed admitting I needed to pee. I got out of bed and walked quickly to the bathroom. I didn't bother cover up, Edward had seen pretty much everything there was to see of my body. My ass had gotten bigger with the pregnancy, but I refused to let that bother me.

Washing my hands in the sink, I looked at myself in the mirror. What I saw there made me groan. My hair looked like a bird's nest. Not even sexy rumpled. Just a hay stack. Deciding I couldn't go out like that, I turned towards Edward's shower. His was bigger and nicer than mine, so I figured I might as well take advantage of it. Turning the levels to the right temperature, I climbed in and let the water soak me. Standing under the warm water I let images from last night flood my mind. Edward had gotten...creative...once he had safely gotten the first schtoop out of the way.

I felt two strong arms snake around my waist, I'd been so lost in the memories from last night I hadn't heard Edward join me in the shower, "You didn't come back to bed," he whispered in my ear.

"I should have said something, but I just needed a shower."

"Do you mind if I join you?" I just shook my head, I wasn't about to pass up on having one of my fantasies come to life.

**A/N: **This chapter doesn't end too cliffy, but you gotta wonder what happens in that shower... Every review make this girl happy, but is not necessary. Thank you for sticking this out with me!!


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **I know ya'll must be ready to off me by now. I know it's been more than forever since last chapter. I'll explain more at the bottom. Now on with the show. And yes, it is a short one, but I did not want to make anyone wait anylonger. So sorry for that.

**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters.

_Few days later_

**BPOV**

I couldn't believe how fucking hot I was all the time. This pregnancy was killing me. I had lost count of how many cool showers I'd had the past couple days. I was literally melting away and my appetite was at an all time low, making everyone worried about me and the baby. I stepped out of the shower and walked over to the mirror. I stared at my growing belly. I was really showing now. I touched my boobs, lifting them up and making a cleavage. The one good thing about pregnancy; huge boobs. I let go of them and looked at my face. Whenever I saw the state of my face I wanted to cry. The baby was giving me really bad skin, I looked like a hormonal teenager with a really bad acne problem. I'd always been proud of my good skin.

I sighed and washed my face with some anti-bacterial face soap. I'd been trying everything to deal with the breakouts. Drying off my face I noticed new pimples. Close to tears, I reached out for my new makeup kit. I refused to let anyone see me like this, so I'd had to go out and buy shit that could cover up the imperfections. I especially refused to let Edward see me like this. The man was fuck hot and looking better than ever.

I finished applying the makeup and walked out of my bathroom. Digging through my underwear drawer I looked at all my sexy lingerie that no longer fit me, feeling a little nostalgic. Pulling out mammoth sized bra and panties, I quickly closed the drawer and tried to think of something else. Since everyone had pretty much forced me to stop working for the time being, I didn't bother with dressing fancy. In fact, for the past few days I had done everything in my power to dress like a hobo.

I had convinced Emmett to bring me some of his basketball outfits. He was easily twice my size so I was drowning in these clothes. You couldn't tell I was pregnant unless you knew it. Yes I was hiding. This thing with Edward was scaring me a little, and hiding in plain sight like that made me feel a tiny bit better. Alice was on my case for wearing Emmett's clothes, but the shorts went down to my calves and the jersey went to my knees. Perfect.

I picked up my laptop form my desk and brought it with me to the kitchen. It was late enough in the day for Edward to be at work, and I had the house to myself. I set down the computer on the kitchen table and booted it up, then turned around to the kettle to heat up water for a tea. I looked in the fridge for something edible, but nothing was striking my fancy. Sighing I settled for a banana. That would have to tie me over until I figured out what I was in the mood to eat.

Bringing the banana and tea over to the table, I sat down in front of the computer. Starting off slow, I surfed all the online gossip rags. I might be out of the game for a little while, but that didn't mean I shouldn't keep an eye on Hollywood. I was after all still a part of the scene. Just on a slight break from it all. Sometimes it just paid off knowing who did what, and who did who in the land of the famous. What I saw on one of the rags made me splutter my tea all over myself. "Shit!" I exclaimed both to what I saw on the screen and to spilling my tea.

Running back to my room to change, I dug out my phone and dialed a number I knew by heart. It went straight to voice mail. "Damn it!" I didn't leave any messages, instead I called my office.

Angela answered on the second ring, _"Bella! Thank goodness you called! The phone has been ringing off the hook all morning!"_ She sounded a little out of breath.

"Have you talked to anyone, Angela? Have you been giving any statements?" I couldn't wrap my head around this just yet. It was too early in the day for me, and my hormones were playing with me. I was probably overreacting.

_"Oh no. I've just been saying 'no comment'. But we will have to release some kind of statement or something."_

"I know, Ang. I know. But I don't want to do anything just yet. Can you please get hold of both of them and have them come over to my place? I have to talk to them before we say anything to anyone."

Hanging up the phone I looked down at myself. Tea stain, it would be impossible to get out unless I soaked the clothes right away. I undressed and walked to the laundry room in only bra and underwear. I was alone in the house, so I didn't worry about walking around half-naked. I had just turned on the washing machine, and was about to walk back to my room to re-dress, when I heard the front door open. "Bella?" Edward called my name.

_Shit! _"Uh... In the laundry room, but don't come in!" I hid behind the door, but peeked from behind it and looked at Edward. Seeing me poking my head from the laundry room, Edward laughed at the sight. "What?"

He reigned in his laughter and looked at me with amusement still clear in his eyes. "Nothing."

"Uh-huh. Can you please leave so I can get to my room?" I was not about to walk to my room dressed in nothing but bra and panties. My figure was history and the underwear was anything but sexy.

"Oh come, babe, you've been sleeping in my bed every night for a week now. It's not like I haven't seen you." Edward grinned wickedly at that.

"It's not the same thing..."

"Bella, you have nothing to be ashamed of. You look gorgeous."

I snorted at that. "I look like an elephant, thank you very much!"

Edward sighed, amusement gone from his face. "What are you talking about? You're carrying my child, and you look amazing. I love seeing the baby grow inside you." He took a step closer to where I was standing. "I know you won't agree, but Bella, you look sexy as hell!"

**EPOV**

Bella looked dubiously at me, clearly not believing me. It was silly of her to hide behind a fucking door. It looked like I would have to make use of my talent of negotiation to get her out of the laundry room. "Bella, you're one sexy mama! Even five months pregnant, you turn heads. You certainly turn my head. _And _you turn me on." I inched closer. She was thinking about what I was saying, and she was skittish like a deer. Any sudden movement from me _would _scare her off.

I raised my hand slowly and let my thumb caress her cheek. Bella looked me in the eyes, doubt still present in hers. I leaned forward and kissed her softly on her lips before I pulled back a little to continue talking to her. "Bella, you look gorgeous. Men would kill to be seen with you." She snorted at my last statement. Maybe I took it a little far with that one.

"Fine! I'll come out. But I'm wearing the worlds' most hideous underwear. I'm warning you because I don't want you laughing at me." She pointed her index finger at my nose. I just nodded, willing to agree to anything to get her out of there.

Bella took tentative steps out of the laundry room, and I felt my knees go weak when I saw her. Her bra was white cotton with red polka-dots on. And her ass was covered in matching boy-shorts that covered the lower part of her belly. It was the red polka-dots that did me in. If she walked around wearing nothing but that, I would be her willing slave. Unable to keep my hands off of her, I picked Bella up one arm supporting her back and the other under her knees. I ran off with Bella to her bedroom before she was even done shrieking in surprise.

"Edward! What the hell?" Bella yelled, a little pissed off with me. I just grinned and put her down on her bed.

"You're one sexy mama, Bella. And this underwear?" Instead of trying to explain to her how sexy she was, I kissed her. In moments Bella deepened the kiss. It didn't take much to turn her on these days. Pulling back from the kiss, I gave her a light peck on her lips before I kissed my way down to her polka-dot covered breasts. They were now big enough so that I could nuzzle my face between them. _Heaven. _Giving her boobs enough attention, I continued to kiss my way down to her belly where my baby was resting. The idea that my child was growing in there floored me. I looked up at Bella's face while I left small pecks all over her belly, and her eyes were misty. I wondered what she was thinking.

"Oh shit!" Bella sat suddenly up, pushing me off of her. "You made me almost forget!"

"Forget what?"

Bella scrambled off the bed and ran into her closet. "Alice and Jasper are coming over. They really messed it up."

"Right! That's what I actually came over to talk to you about." How could I have forgotten?

Bella poked her head out, wearing a tight t-shirt. "I'm guessing you've seen the gossip rags too?"

I laid back on her bed and adjusted myself. Our little make-out session had left me hard. "Yeah, it's not really a big deal. It just needs to be dealt with. These rags always make these things to be a bigger deal than they really are."

"I know. I've had to deal with these idiots more than enough." Bella was standing at the foot of her bed looking down on me, both hands on her hips. With her black t-shirt and black yoga-pants, it was hard to tell she was pregnant from the front. I sat up and scratched my chin, making sure I wasn't sporting any drool. The woman was drool worthy and then some.

We just stared at each other when there was a knock on the door. Without a word, Bella turned and walked out of her room to open the front door.

I sighed and got off the bed. It was time to deal with Jasper and Alice. Once they were out of here, I hoped Bella and I could pick back up where we left off. Just the thought of Bella naked on the bed turned me on. _Shit! No more naked Bella thoughts. _It was hard, _heh, _but I was going to put that thought on hold.

Following the voices I found everyone in the kitchen. They were all sitting around the table, sombre looks on their faces.

"I can't believe you didn't think about the possibility of being caught by the vultures." Bella looked at them both. "Jasper? Alice?"

Alice's legs were bouncing as she stared at Bella, and Jasper looked tired as hell. I greeted both and sat down next to Bella. I was going to let Bella take point in this conversation. I might be their agent, but she was their manager.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Bella looked both Alice and Jasper in the eyes, "I guess you can imagine my shock this morning when I logged onto the computer to be bombarded with images of you two going at it in an alley."

They both blushed at Bella's directness. Jasper sighed and looked at both me and Bella, "I don't even know how to start defending what we did last night. Honestly, I don't want. There is nothing to defend."

"That's fine, Jasper," I said, "we make no excuses. We still need to say something. You guys need to own up to the photos that are roaming the web like a wildfire. We gotta say _something_ to the press. They will not leave this one alone."

"Bella, this isn't casual with Jasper and me," Alice piped in.

Bella grinned at Alice and leaned forward. "Oh I know that honey. I kinda figured out ages ago that there is something between you guys..."

"And you never said anything?" Alice shrieked.

"It was your secret to spill, not mine," Bella shrugged and leaned back in her chair. Both her hands were resting protectively on her belly as she was looking back and forth between Alice and Jasper.

I looked away from Bella and made eye-contact with Jasper. "You guys were caught, so this all boils down to owning up to what happened, and either make your relationship public or stop seeing each other. I doubt your careers will take any damage from this. My guess is that you've gained a whole new group of fans." Jasper laughed out loud at that and looked somewhat relieved.

We stayed at the kitchen table and tried to word the press release right when there was a loud banging on the door. We weren't expecting anyone else, so I got up and went to the door. On the other side of the front door I found a distressed looking Emmett. "You all right, man?" I asked him.

"Yeah. No. I don't know... Is Bella here?" He looked frantically behind me for Bella.

I sensed Bella behind me before I felt her warm hand on my back. "What's wrong, Em?" she asked as she took in Emmett's appearance.

Emmett was pale and jittery as he took a deep breath. "Me and Rosie went up to Vegas to party. And we got married..."

**A/N: **Sorry it took more than a month to update Magnetism, but I spent a good chunk of that month to write a oneshot for the Tattward competition. I didn't make the cut, but you can find a link to it in my profile. It is something I will continue when I wrap up Magnetism, so let me know if it's something you like. Writing things takes me a while these days, I suffer from migraines and dizziness and have been on a sickleave since my birthday 3 months ago, so do not expect me to hammer out chapters at any speedy rate.

I know I left you off with a bit of a "huh?" there. But the idea of Em and Rose getting drunkenly married in Vegas was just too funny to pass up on. I want to thank each and every one of you for every favorite, alert and review. Seeing these truly makes me happy. I literally squee. *laughs*

It is **PIMPING **time again! Eternally grateful to my beta **Ezzery** for sticking with me through my antics. I want to thank **Megsly**, **BQOTFU** and **phoenixhunter47** for trusting me to be their beta. Big smoochies to **momksmama** and **Beautiful_Figment** for making me laugh when I need it the most. Special shoutout to **algonquinrt **and **stavanger1** for always having the answers to my "idiot questions" over on Twitter. You will find all these amazing ladies in my profile under the favorite authors tab. Oh yeah, my new addiction is Twitter. That's where you'll find me most days. Link to my account in profile.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: **Wow. Less than two weeks. I know. How unexpected? I'll leave the rest and the ranting and the raving for the end notes. Now, on with the show.

**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters.

**BPOV**

"_Me and Rosie went up to Vegas to party. And we got married..."_

"You what??" I shouted at Emmett. I turned away from the door and started pacing back and forth, both my hands tugging at my hair. "How much more of your people's antics will I have to deal with today? Does anyone have any more surprises for me?" Everyone was now in the hallway watching me silently. I knew I was being unreasonable, but there were only so many things a pregnant woman, make that pregnant _horny _woman, could deal with at once.

Alice and Jasper were going at it like rabbits in public. Emmett and Rosalie screwing each other all the way to the altar, apparently. And I was horny and frustrated and alone. All right, so I had been sleeping with Edward for the past week, but that was just scratching the itch. It wasn't like he was mine or anything. I stopped my pacing and looked at everyone. "Has everyone lost their minds? Or is it just me? Am I loosing it?" No one said anything. "Fine. So we're _all _loosing our minds. Em, you might as well call Rose and tell her to drag her ass over here. We gotta deal with the two of you as well." I took one last look at them and walked away. "I'll be in my room until Rose shows up," I said over my shoulder and closed the door to my room.

I threw myself on the bed and grumbled about the mess. Alice and Jasper I could handle. They'd had the hots for each other for ages. But Emmett and Rosalie? Really? Emmett was like family. And Rosalie hated my guts. How was that ever going to work out? Even more frustrated I turned over to my side and grabbed one of the pillows to hug it. Would Rosalie be civil towards me? Or would I end up losing Emmett? I couldn't have him disappear out of my life, I would have to make nice with Rose. Unless they got the marriage annulled.

I sat up in my bed, an idea taking form in my head. Before I had any more time to think about it, the door to my room opened up and Edward's deliciously long legs appeared first, then his coppery red hair and the rest of him. Just the thought of his amazing legs made me want to rub my legs together for some friction. _Damn, I'm horny!_

"You all right, love?" he asked and sat down on my bed. I just shrugged. I didn't want to say anything until everyone was here. I hated repeating myself, and this especially I didn't want to talk about over and over again. "Oh Bella," he sighed and wrapped his arms around me. Why did I suddenly feel like crying? I nuzzled into his chest and breathed in Edward's scent. He smelled safe to me. He had quickly become my home. Edward and his smell made me feel whole. I pushed back the tears and just enjoyed the warm arms around me.

There was a timid knock on my door. "Bella?" It was Emmett.

"Come in, Em. I promise not to chew your head off," I said loud enough for him to hear me over the closed door. Em just opened the door a little and poked his head through, probably checking to see if it was safe to come in.

"Rosalie is here, you guys gonna come out?"

I glanced quickly at Edward before looking at Emmett, "Already? That was quick."

Edward cleared his voice, "Rosalie lives in this building, Bella."

"Oh..." I couldn't think of anything else to say. This was certainly news to me. How come Edward hadn't said anything about it before? I pulled out from his arms and looked at him. It hit me that there were still a lot of things I didn't know about this man. A little at loss for words I walked out of my bedroom, leaving both men in there. I'd talk to Edward about that little tidbit later. Right now I had bigger fish to fry.

**EPOV**

_Shit! _I knew not telling Bella about Rosalie living just a few floors below us would come back to bite me in the ass. From the look Bella had been shooting my way, I knew she would want to talk about it when the others left. I got up from the bed and walked over to Emmett. I patted his back for good luck as we walked out of Bella's bedroom together. We were both in trouble with the same woman, but for different reasons. We found the girls and Jasper all sitting quietly, just looking at each other in the living room. Bella was sitting alone on the big sofa. Alice and Jasper were sharing one love seat, and Rosalie was occupying the other one. I watched as Emmett sat next to Rosalie and took hold of her hand. Looking over at Bella, I saw that she was watching them. She looked kind of crestfallen for a second before she put on her poker face. It made me wonder what her explosion earlier _really _had been about.

Sitting down on the sofa next to Bella, I took hold of her hand. She didn't pull away, so I took that as a good sign.

Holding on tightly to my hand, she turned towards Alice and Jasper. "We've already talked some, so we'll figure out what to do with the two of you later. But you two," she said turning towards Emmett and Rosalie, "where the hell did you two hooking up come from?"

Emmett was rubbing his neck, looking anywhere but at Bella. Rosalie actually looked a little afraid of Bella. That was a first. Looking back and forth between them, I could see that neither was willing to say anything first. Guess it was up to me to get them talking and find out what they had been thinking when Emmett and Rose decided to get married out of the blue.

"One of you better start talking. I don't want the tabloids all over this like a bad habit the way they're all over these two," I said pointing to the rabbits. Yeah, after that very public display, I called them rabbits in my head.

Rosalie looked at Emmett through the corner of her eyes, "You tell them, Em. After all, it was your brilliant idea that got us into this."

I felt Bella stiffen beside me. Trying to calm her down, I rubbed her palm with my thumb. We all waited for Emmett to start talking.

He stopped rubbing his neck and looked at me. "With you two shacked up in here, and Jasper and Alice going at it all over town, me and Rosie were bored. So we went to Vegas for a bit of fun."

"You were bored?" Bella asked quietly.

"Yeah. I mean..." But she cut him off before he could say anything else.

"Emmett! You don't get married because you're bored! You get married because you're in love!" she yelled.

"What the hell would you know about love and marriage anyway?" he yelled back. "You fucked a stranger and got knocked up!"

Suddenly everyone erupted into one big fight. Words and insults were thrown all over the place. I turned to Bella. "What the fuck Bella? Where the hell did you dig out these morons? In the span of 48 hours they've been caught by the paps fucking in public, and they have gotten married in Vegas!"

"Oh shut the fuck up Edward, Rosalie is your friend, and she is the idiot that married this moron," Bella huffed, pointing at Emmett.

"Enough!" Jasper yelled at the top of his lungs. "So we fucked up. All of us! No one is a fucking saint here, so shut it and lets deal with this." The voice of reason, Jasper had managed to calm down the fight. Everyone sat back down and we just looked at each other for a few minutes.

Bella took a deep breath and looked at Emmett and Rosalie. "You can always have the marriage annulled and blame it on the vodka."

Rosalie looked sad and Emmett looked like he'd been eating a lemon. "Bella. Me and Rosie already talked about it." He put his arm around Rosalie's shoulders. "We're going to give it a shot. See how being married is going to work out for us."

Bella looked like she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Are you serious? You're serious, aren't you? Fuck!" She rubbed her face with her hands. "Why?" she asked and looked at them both. When neither of them answered, Bella sighed and looked at them with determination. "I hope you realize what being married means. If you're gonna take a shot at this, it means you have to take a real shot. You can't regret this one week from now. Not even a month from now. You are committing for real here. The media will eat you alive!"

Bella grabbed onto my hand and looked at me for a second before turning back to the newly married couple. "We can't let the vultures know this is a drunken marriage. We have to make them believe that this was planned, that the two of you simply eloped. Are you all right with that explanation? Because that will mean that other than the six of us, no one is to know that what we tell them isn't the truth."

After Bella's little speech, I figured it was time for me to pipe in. "I agree with Bella, guys. If you are going to give this marriage a shot, you need to be sure you're willing to stick this one out more than just a few months. As your agent, Em, I will be getting a lot of questions about this when talking to people on your behalf. This will reflect on character and your ability to work. If you can't commit to marriage, how will people trust you to commit to working on their movies?"

I could see the wheels working behind Emmett's eyes as he realized there was a lot more at stake here than he had initially thought. Looking at Rose I could see her worry-lines come out around her mouth and eyes. She was afraid that Emmett would bail before they even had a shot at trying their hand at marriage. Not wanting to rush Emmett into the wrong decision, I turned to the other duo in trouble.

"What about you guys? Going to Vegas to get hitched too?" I quipped, not able to stop myself. I laughed at Alice's face. "Don't worry, I'm not telling you to get married. Yet. But the cat _is_ out of the bag, loud and clear, so we have no other choice but to fess up." I had noticed Jasper's eyes lit up when I mentioned marriage, which gave me an idea.

I glanced at Bella and prayed she wouldn't kill me for what I was about to propose. She had been against the marriage, so I didn't think she would react any better to this. I rubbed my eyes with my fingers before looking at Alice and Jasper. "I think you guys should get engaged. That way the whole sex in public thing won't seem so casual." I held my breath, waiting for the explosion.

**BPOV**

_Engagement? _I looked at Edward, wondering if he had lost it completely. Did he just ask Alice and Jasper to get engaged? I was sure my ears were playing a trick on me so I looked over at Jasper. He didn't look like he was against the idea. Sighing I looked at Alice. It didn't exactly look like she was in love with the idea.

"What the hell are you talking about, Edward?" This whole thing was starting to give me a headache, and I rubbed my temples to try to stop the throbbing before it got too bad.

Edward motioned for me to turn my back to him and started to massage my shoulders. It felt heavenly, only downside to having my back to him was that I would not be able to see or read him. I could feel him hesitate behind me.

"I'm not saying they have to stay engaged, or get married at any point. But they did have sex in public, and having them engaged will make this whole thing appear as two crazy lovers not being able to hold their hands off of each other." Edward paused when he hit a very sore spot that made me tense up for a second, before he continued to explain, "If this appears to be casual sex, the media will kill them. Public sex between casual friends just cheapens their relationship."

I knew Edward was right. It still felt wrong to rush Alice and Jasper into something that even wasn't on the agenda yet. I knew Jasper loved the idea, he was always a few steps ahead on the emotional plane. Just as I knew that Alice was nowhere near having thoughts about being engaged to anyone. I knew her spiel about how she just knew Jasper was the one, but she wasn't ready to settle down just yet.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I hated doing this to Alice, but unless someone came up with a better solution, we would have to go with Edward's suggestion. I moved away from Edward's warm hands and leaned towards Alice to grab her hand. "I don't want you to hate us, but I guess Edward is right. Unless we do this, your reputation will be tarnished, and you know how this town is. It is never old news the next day. The idiots in this town will remember this forever."

Alice wiped away a stray tear and looked at Jasper. "I guess we're engaged then," she sighed.

**A/N: **I never knew how useful a word challenge could be. I managed 1500 words in a little more than one hour. Which blew me away. Sure, I went a little comma crazy since I was writing so fast, and thank goodness for my beta who was here to weed those suckers out. *laughs*

I hope you have gotten some more answers, there are more to come. I am also not sure if Bella's baby should be a boy or a girl - I would love some input on that. We're not quite there yet, but we're getting closer, so I gotta start planning this out.

I can't say how much I appreciate every singel favorite, alert and review. You guys are my rockstars!!

And now, on to the biggest rockstars. Even if life isn't always smiling at her, my amazing beta **Ezzery** is always there when I need her. **Megsly**, **BQOTFU**, **phoenixhunter47** and **nat3200** trust me to beta their stories, and that just rocks my world. **Beautiful_Figment** is always making me laugh like the true rocker that she is. And I want to say thank you to everyone who twitters with me over on Twitter, you rock out each and every day. You are my addiction!

There is a reason I mention these people by their usernames. They all have stories that will rock your world.

Thank you for sticking with me this far. ;)


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: **Believe me, I know. Total and utter fail. But this chapter has been rewritten 3 times, and has been a general pain to get out. More at the end. :)

**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters.

**EPOV**

_Two days later_

"Bella? You ready?" I poked my head through Bella's door, looking for her. "They are waiting for us at the restaurant." There was no sound coming from within the room. Puzzled, I stepped into the room. "Bella?" More than a little worried now I walked over to her walk-in closet when I didn't see her in the bedroom. I breathed out with relief, she hadn't fainted. After Bella's big fainting spell that put her in a hospital bed, it had been my biggest worry.

"Bella?" I called again, there was still no reaction from her. She was clutching some sort of fabric to her chest and staring off into space. Carefully I put my hand on her shoulder.

"Oh shit!" she exclaimed, jumping away from me.

"Where were you?" I asked with a chuckle before I saw her tears. "What's wrong?" Tears were never a good thing, and I never knew how to act around crying women.

"Nothing's wrong. I just realized we're having a baby." Bella smiled a little through her tears.

"You _just _realized?" I laughed.

Bella laughed at my quip too. "I _know_ I'm pregnant, it just suddenly became very real. Then I started thinking about the other guys; how Em is now married to Rose, Jazz and Alice are engaged and we're having a baby. Everything is different, you know?"

"What brought this on?" I wondered.

Bella held up a piece of clothing. "I was just looking for something to wear to dinner and came across my favorite top. I picked it up without thinking and realized it didn't exactly fit me anymore."

I sighed and wrapped my arms around her. I understood that there would be emotional changes due to her pregnancy but it was still hard to see her so sad, and it made me feel inadequate as I didn't know how to help her feel better. "Bella. Not all changes are bad." I carefully put my right hand to her chin and tilted her head upwards until I could look her in the eyes. "There really is no need for you to worry about everyone. They're still here. They're still your friends. They're not going anywhere."

Bella nodded her head. "I know all that. It doesn't bother me, much." She glanced up at me at the last word. "It's just that it was as if reality hit me like a ton of bricks. It was just a feeling. Nothing more," she shrugged.

"And..." I prompted, knowing there was more to it.

"And..." she sighed, "I started thinking about after the baby is born. What's going to happen then?" Bella looked away as she admitted this.

Sighing, I knew we were finally getting to the root of this outburst of tears. "Bella, you are amazing. You were literally thrown into this. We both were." I paused and hugged her close to me. "I have already told you numerous times, and I'll tell you again. I want you to live here. On a permanent basis. I don't want you to go anywhere." I took a deep breath, _now or never._ "I want you, Bella. More than you can imagine. I don't know if you want to hear it, but I have fallen in love with you. The more I get to know you, the more I fall in love. I know you don't love me. At least not yet. But do you feel anything for me? At all?"

Bella looked stunned as she lifted her head off my shoulder and just stared at me.

**BPOV**

_He loves me? Do I feel anything for him? _For a moment I was sure my ears were playing a trick on me. I didn't say anything for the longest time, I couldn't think of what words to use. My eyes never wavered away from Edward's and I noticed the light in them slowly go out. Like all hope was leaving him. I could feel his arms tense around me, expecting a rejection.

I closed my eyes and swallowed before tucking my head in the junction between Edward's neck and shoulder. I loved this spot, my head fit perfectly. "I feel more than just some random feelings for you, Edward," I sighed into him. I lifted my head again and looked him in the eyes, the light was back. I gently put my hand on his cheek. "I have been in love with you for so long, I don't even remember how or when it started."

"What do you mean?" he asked as he swallowed hard.

Lifting my other hand up to his other cheek, I held his face tenderly between my hands. "Edward, that day at Starbucks? Where I just came home with you? When this happened?" I asked as I took a small step away from him and touched my very pregnant belly. "Had I not been in love with you already back then, I would not have gone home with you."

I could see the wheels in his head start to turn as he processed what I had said. "Oh, Bella," he sighed and pulled me into him again. "We're a couple of idiots." He kissed my forehead and looked at me with his wonderfully crooked smile. "I was so madly in love with you I could not help myself. It wasn't just a random pickup. I had been dreaming about you for so long, I just had to do something about it. I was going to tell you that day. I wanted to take you out on a date, a little after the fact, I know, but I wanted to get to know you."

"So this dance we've been doing has been a total waste? Why didn't you say something?" I demanded.

"Because stuff kept getting in the way, and I didn't want to scare you away." Edward took my hand and pulled me towards my bed, where he sat down and motioned for me to sit next to him. There he explained to me how he had been treading very carefully around my demands to first continue living in my old apartment, then the whole 'get to know each other' deal I had brokered. After I moved in, he had been afraid I'd just pack up and leave if he didn't cater to my every whim. He'd just been as afraid I was.

I watched Edward's mouth as he was talking, a smile tugged on my lips and I felt a swarm of butterflies take over my belly. Without a word I pounced on Edward and cut his speech off mid-word. Edward was a little stunned at first, but once he gathered his wits about him, he started kissing me back. Just as he was about to wrap his arms around me, I pulled away and ran away from the bedroom, laughing.

"Bella..." I heard Edward come after me. Just as I reached the living room, I felt Edward grab onto me and I squealed and nearly doubled over in laughter. Edward gave me a light kiss and looked at me with an amused expression. "What brought this on?" he asked as his hands caressed my back.

I shrugged my shoulders and leaned into him. "I don't know. I just suddenly wanted to do something silly."

Edward chuckled and pulled me even closer to himself. "Well, silly Bella, Alice and Rosalie will kill us if we get to the restaurant too late. We better finish getting dressed and get going."

I pulled back and looked him up and down. "You're already dressed and good to go," I pouted.

"That I am. Do you need any help getting ready?" he asked me with a wicked glint in his eyes.

"Hah! If you 'help' me we'll never get out of here," I said as I raised one eyebrow. Edward said nothing at that. He just turned me towards my room and gave me a gentle push.

I felt as if I was walking on air. The future didn't look so scary anymore. I smiled to myself as I thought about Edward's words. _He loves me. _I wanted to squeal like a teenage girl. Edward Cullen was in love with me. I, Isabella Swan, had his heart. I looked towards the door of my room to make sure he wasn't nearby. Certain I was a lone, I did a little happy dance in my bedroom.

Laughing at my own giddiness, I turned towards my walk-in to finish getting dressed. I stopped at my full length mirror and really looked at myself. Sure I hated not being able to wear any of my sexy lingerie anymore, but Edward seemed to find my cute mommy-wear just as alluring. Maybe not alluring, but he had gotten rather frisky last time he saw me in it. I smiled at that memory. Still staring at myself, I turned around and looked at myself in profile. _Damn has my ass gotten big. _Turning back around I looked at my thighs and hips, I was starting to fill out all over. Grabbing my own boobs I weighed them in my hands, they were _really _filling out. I'd gone up a few bra-sizes. _Hope these stick around after the birth, _I thought to myself as I smiled.

Looking down at my belly, I thought about another human being growing inside of me. Touching where the baby was growing I felt myself tear up again. Only this time they were tears of hope and joy. Hope for a future with Edward and joy for this baby being with us. This baby brought us back together after I ran like a coward. "Thank you, little one," I whispered to the baby. I took a deep breath, wiped away my tears and went looking for something to wear.

**EPOV**

Everyone else had already arrived and were seated around a table when Bella and I finally made it there. We were all looking through our menus when Emmett cleared his voice. "Bella?"

Bella looked up from her menu. "Yeah?"

Emmett took a deep breath. "I want to say I'm sorry for loosing it and being awful to you." Emmett looked really remorseful.

Bella leaned over and grabbed his hand. "Em, we all said stupid things. If anything, I should apologize for being a moody bitch for the past few months," Bella said with a playful look in her eyes, which made Jasper chuckle.

Letting go of Emmett's hand and leaning back in her chair, Bella looked at everyone. "Seriously you guys, we had a fight, we aired some dirty laundry, and we got over it. With how closely knit we have become, it's bound to happen from time to time." Bella took a sip of her water and looked at Rosalie. "It doesn't change anything, we're still friends."

I saw Rosalie's slight smile and nod in appreciation. Maybe my girls would get along. I really wanted Bella and Rosalie to become friends, not getting along would only split us all up in the long run and I didn't want that.

We were done with dinner and on to desserts and coffee before Emmett started to tell us of the now infamous Vegas trip.

"Me and Rosie were bored and just wanted to get away, so we got into a cab and drove out to the airport and hopped on the first plane heading for Vegas."

"Just like that?" Alice asked. "What about clothes and everything a girl needs?" Alice actually looked like the idea of not bringing half her belongings was hurting her.

"Well that's the thing, dear Alice." Emmett took a hold of Rosalie's hand. "This girl is low maintenance, and anything we would need could be bought in Vegas."

The idea of Rosalie being low maintenance made me snort, thankfully I didn't have anything in my mouth when Emmett said that. "Em! If you think Rose is low maintenance, you're in for a big surprise my man," I laughed.

Emmett chuckled and looked at me. "No one is low maintenance compared to Bella, even I know that. But compared to this one?" he said pointing to Alice, "Rosalie _is _low maintenance."

"Hey!" Alice protested.

"Come on, darlin'. You know it's true," Jasper coaxed her.

"Yeah," she pouted, "but cheap shot!" Alice said that with a smile.

"Anyway," Emmett continued, "when you're in Vegas, there is only one place to stay when you have women with you."

"The Venetian," the girls said at once before bursting into giggles.

"Ooh, did you get to do some shopping there?" Alice asked Rosalie.

"Did I ever!" When Rose started to list all the things she bought in Las Vegas, my mind drifted off. Talk about shopping or shopping itself always bored me to death. Instead I let my eyes wander around the table, taking in everyone before they rested on Bella. She had an amused expression on her face as she watched Rose and Alice interact. It really looked like Bella was warming up to Rosalie.

Looking over at Rose, I thought about how only a few months ago, it was just the two of us. Now we had a whole group of friends. Family really since she had managed to marry Emmett, while Bella and I seemed to have moved our relationship into the next level today.

Pulling out of my thoughts, I looked up and noticed Jasper looking at me with a slight smile. I smiled back at him and took a hold of Bella's hand. She looked up at me questioningly, but I just shook my head and smiled at her. I couldn't get enough of her. My eyes were magnetically pulled towards her. She was just beautiful.

"So after we were done spending our money, Emmett took me out to this amazing restaurant not far from the hotel, the food and the wine were to die for!"

"What? Food and wine not good enough for you here?" I laughed at Rosalie. She just stuck her tongue out to me much to everyone's amusement.

"Where did you take Rosalie after dinner?" Bella asked Emmett, who looked at Rosalie and took a hold of her hand before answering.

"We did the most romantic shit you can do in Las Vegas, a ride in a gondola on the canal!"

"Shit?" Rosalie protested and pulled her hand out of Emmett's grasp.

"Sorry, Rosie baby," Emmett groaned when he saw her face. Rosalie looked really annoyed. "I'll take you to the real Venice and that won't be shit." He gave her the puppy eyes and Rosalie melted like ice in the desert.

"Okay," she whispered and gave him a quick kiss. I glanced over at Bella and saw that she had a wistful look on her. Did she want to go to Venice? I hid that little tidbit away for later.

"Well, The Venetian might be the romantic shit, but Venice smells like shit," Jasper chuckled and got a smack to the back of his head by Alice. "Ow! What was that for?"

"That was for being a dumb ass," Alice said sternly. Jasper huffed but didn't say a word back.

"Enough of that," Bella said as she leaned forward and rested her arms on the table. "I'm sure that Venice is beautiful even if it's smelly. "Tell me you at least hit the tables after the gondola ride." She looked expectantly at Emmett and Rose.

Emmett and Rosalie alternated in telling us the story of their drunken night in Las Vegas. Rosalie had been a big enough of a distraction to the other players for Emmett to win big at the tables. In addition to winning a lot, they had been consuming a lot of alcohol as well. When Emmett had finally been too drunk to play, he had dragged Rosalie to the bar and had left a good chunk of his winnings with the bartender.

Neither remembered how they had gotten to a chapel or actually getting married. "I just remember waking up the next day sore all over and with this ring on my finger," Rosalie sighed as she wiggled the fingers on her left hand. Emmett just sat there with a huge grin on his face and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Emmett! Don't even think about it!" Bella warned as she stared him down.

"What? I'm not thinking anything." Emmett looked like an overgrown kid with the pout.

"Em, I know you. I know what you're thinking. No sharing details," Bella smirked at Emmett as he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Why not?" I asked without thinking. The looks I got from all three girls was enough to make me want to shrink in my chair, so I whispered a sorry and busied myself with the glass of water in front of me.

Rosalie punched Emmett in the arm and said, "Can you ever keep your trap shut?"

As I watched Rose treating Emmett as if they were an married old couple, a realization suddenly hit me. How had I not thought about it before? I got up off my chair and addressed the table, "Guys, I have something really important to ask Bella."

**A/N: **I'm painfully aware of it being almost two months since previous chapter. No one knows it better than me. But this chapter contains a billion rewrites, several panic attacks, and threats to just give up on it all together. I would _not _be posting this today or writing this A/N if it had not been for my wonderful beta and friend **Ezzery**. I may bitch and moan and be unreasonable, but at the end of the day I appreciate and love you to bits and pieces.

To the readers who are still with me, we are nearing the end of this tale, just a couple more chapters. You still being here and reading this ditty means more to me than you can ever understand. Every review is like a light at the end of a dreary day, you really make things better.

**Beautiful Figment**, thank you for being my partner in crime on _By Any Means Necessary_. I can't believe we made it to the final round! And with something we did for shizz and giggles! **Megsly**, **BQOTFU**, **phoenixhunter47**, **nat3200**, **naelany**, **VanPireNZ **and **gypsysue** - thank you for all the love and virtual coffee a girl can ever need. Sometimes when I wonder why I bother, you all make it worth it.

Thank you for reading my ramble. ;)


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: **I have been sitting on this text for a while now, but I was trying to make this chapter longer. But with so much crap going on with me these days, I don't see that happening any day soon, and it has been over a month since last update. So I figured I'd post Bella's POV now and simply expand the story with a chapter. The amount of chapters was never set anyway, so... Anyway, get to reading and I'll see you at the bottom.

**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters.

**BPOV**

"_Guys, I have something really important to ask Bella."_

I could feel my breathing hitch, _he...what...now? _What important question...? "Oh God, no..." I whispered to myself. I could feel myself get cold all over, and I knew I had to be white like a sheet. We had told each other how we really felt just hours ago. I looked at the others with wide eyes, Alice looked happy as she was looking at Edward with a wide smile. Emmett looked like he was ready to kill, Rosalie had an annoyed expression on her, and Jasper just looked confused.

Looking back up at Edward as he was looking at the others, I saw comprehension dawn upon him. "Oh...you guys thought...I wasn't...I mean..." he stuttered.

"What do you mean, Edward?" Rosalie asked calmly.

"Oh God," Edward sighed and leaned his forehead on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Bella," he whispered.

Taking my hand he looked at the others and cleared his voice. "Don't get me wrong, guys, I love Bella very much." He turned his head to me and stared me in the eyes. "I have for a very long time. But I think we both agree that marriage right now is too soon for us."

"Thank God you weren't about to ask me to marry you right now," I whispered to Edward, relief washing over me.

Edward smiled a little at my relief. "I just had an epiphany about what we need to be doing next," he said addressing all of us, "with the baby and everything that comes with, we should probably move out of the penthouse and into a house."

"A...a house?" That was the last thing I had expected to hear from Edward.

"Yeah. A big house with a big garden. Somewhere with a good school nearby."

"Oh..." I didn't know what else to say.

"Where would you want to move?" Always the pragmatic, Jasper would of course ask the practical questions.

"I was thinking maybe up in the hills would be a good place to start looking. Beverly Hills definitely has the good schools, and we shouldn't move too far away from Hollywood." I looked at Edward as he said that, had he put some thought into it already?

Everyone chimed in to discuss what kind of a house we would need, where the best schools were and about a billion other little things I never would have thought of by myself.

When I first found out I was pregnant, I had thought I would be doing this by myself even though Edward had been there with me when we got the results. If he hadn't stepped up, I would most likely still be stuck in my tiny apartment. Out of all the changes in my life these past few months, he had been the biggest one. And the biggest surprise. Turned out Edward was exactly what I had needed in my life.

I got lost in my thoughts and stopped paying attention to what was said.

"Bella, are you ready to leave?" Feeling Edward's hand on my chin pulled me out of the daze I had been in. Looking up I saw that everyone was up and getting ready to leave.

"Oh. Yeah. Let's get out of here," I said as I got out of my chair and looked for my purse.

Edward handed it to me and bent down to give me a quick kiss. "Where did you go to just there?"

"No where in particular, just thought about how much my life has changed in the past few months."

Putting his hand on my back, Edward guided me around the tables of the restaurant. "Did you decide on whether the changes are bad or good?"

Hugging the purse to my chest I smiled at my own epiphany. "It's all good." I couldn't help my smile grow even wider at my thoughts earlier.

The day had been a bit of a rollercoaster emotionally for me, and I was ready to pass out when we got home. As soon as we walked in, I made a beeline for the bed and stumbled into it not even worried about getting undressed. I sighed happily as soon as my head hit the pillow, feeling my whole body start to relax.

I felt the mattress dip behind me as Edward sat down on the bed. "You okay?" he asked as he put his hand on my forehead.

Yawning, I heard my jaw pop. "Yeah, just completely spent."

Closing my eyes I heard as Edward shuffled around the room behind me. As I lay there, I realized that I had walked straight to Edward's bedroom without thinking. Groaning, I got up from the bed and made for the door.

"Whoa, where do you think you're going?" Edward blocked my path to the hallway.

Too tired to connect the dots, I just stared blankly at him. Pointing over his shoulder, I whispered, "My room."

Grabbing me by the shoulders, Edward turned me around and pushed me back towards his bed while bending down to whisper in my ear, "I don't think so." When we reached the bed he let go of me and grabbed something off the dresser that was close by. Handing it over to me, I saw that it was one of Edward's oversized t-shirts and a pair of men's shorts. "Do you need any help getting undressed?"

I turned my head towards him and saw a huge grin. Smiling back at him I just shook my head and walked over to the bathroom to get changed.

Edward was already in bed, propped up by his pillows when I emerged from the bathroom changed and clean of all signs of makeup. The covers were low on his hips as he was reading some papers he was holding in his hands. My eyes were immediately drawn to his sculpted chest, and as I walked closer to the bed I could also see his amazing abs from behind the papers he held. Just a look at Edward's glorious upper body was all it took to turn me on.

Even though he didn't look up from his papers, I knew that Edward was fully aware of me being back in the bedroom. He was attuned to me, as I was to him. We had this freakish magnetic pull, always gravitating towards each other. Even before that fateful day when I came here with him had the pull been almost unreal.

I climbed into the bed, nuzzling into his side and just breathed him in. The scent of Edward always seemed to make me feel safe. Edward must have put his papers down because only seconds later I felt his arms surround me. "You all right?" he asked and kissed the top of my head.

"You keep asking me that a lot," I laughed into his neck before taking a playful bite.

"You need to stop that right away," Edward groaned as he shuddered.

"Why?" I was now on to kissing his jaw.

"Because you're beyond exhausted, and if you don't stop, you won't be getting any rest any time soon."

I quickly straddled him and leaned into his ear to whisper, "Maybe I don't want any rest..."

Edward's deep and guttural groan turned me on even more as I sat back up again, dragging my hands down his chest, leaning back a bit. As I felt him growing hard against my ass, I started to grind against him. Leaning back down I attacked his mouth, devouring him. Just as Edward wrapped his arms around me, I felt a kick. Both of us abruptly stopped what we were doing and just looked at each other. Just as I opened my mouth to say something, I felt it again. And so did Edward.

I quickly got off Edward and sat down next to him as he sat up. "Was that...?" he asked, pointing to my belly.

I just nodded, a little dazed myself. I quickly grabbed Edward's hand as I felt the kick again and placed it on my bump. The next time the baby kicked we both felt it. "This is so weird," I whispered. Looking into Edward's eyes I saw that they was getting a little misty.

Looking down on my belly, Edward put his other hand on my bump as well. "Hey, baby," he whispered and kissed the bump. Just as he was lifting his head back up again, the baby kicked again making both of us laugh.

"The baby isn't even born yet, but he or she is already cock blocking us," I laughed through my tears, that were now falling freely.

Both of us crawled back up to the pillows and laid down. The last thing I remembered was Edwards hand on my belly, quietly humming a song I had never heard.

**A/N: **I'm am forever grateful to my beta **Ezzery**, who even in troubled times has time for me and my antics and my silly stories. A big thank you to **Megsly** and **BQOTFU** for pre-reading for me and telling me what sounds strange and what sounds good.

Thank you to you, my reader, for still being with me. Every single review from you means more to me than you'll ever realize. I adore each and everyone of you.

**Beautiful Figment**, **BQOTFU**, **VanPireNZ **and **gypsysue **- thank you for letting a girl have a shoulder to cry on. I don't think you even know how much you've helped me out. And thank you for trusting me enough to be your beta. :)

**Megsly**, **phoenixhunter47**, **nat3200 **- I still can't believe you guys let me be your beta. Thank you for trusting me with your writing. :)

**naelany** - thank you for all the love and virtual coffee a girl can ever need. :)

To all my Twitter-friends. Thank you for making each and every day so much brighter. ILY!


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: **Laura Pausini has proved to be the perfect muse for me and my writing. Which is why this chapter is coming to you insanely early. Hope you like Emmett's little...er...mishap... Read on and I'll see you at the bottom.

**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters.

**EPOV**

_3 weeks later_

"Are you sure we're at the right address?" Bella asked me as she looked at the house we were approaching. "It looks different..."

I had to agree with Bella, it didn't look a lot like the pictures we had been sent by the Realtor. It sort of looked bigger.

"Look at this place, Edward. I doubt we can afford it." Bella looked away from the house and turned her head to me. She was chewing on her lip.

There were few things Bella obviously didn't know about me yet. I didn't want to keep secrets, but the subject had never come up in our talks. "How about if we just take a look at it and see if it's something we would like?" I asked.

"What if we fall in love with the house?" she sighed, "How are we going to walk away from something we love but can't afford?"

"Bella, let's just go in and take a look. At least we'll get a better idea of what we like and don't like."

Taking a deep breath she gave me a quick nod in approval and was out of the car before I even had a chance to open the door on my side.

Just as we reached the front door, there was a commotion behind us. Turning around we saw Jasper dragging Alice along as they ran up the driveway and Emmett was pushing Rosalie in front of him.

"Wait for us," Emmett hollered.

"Where are your cars?" Bella asked as they all stopped in front of us, panting from the slight run.

"We weren't sure if we could drive all the way up, so we parked on the outside." Alice was bouncing on her feet. She looked the least exhausted, and I guessed the only reason why Jasper had been dragging her behind him was because his legs were longer than hers.

"You guys didn't have to come out here to look at houses with us." I had wanted to do this alone with Bella, but I should have guessed keeping the guys away would be impossible. Sometimes it was as if we were all joined at the hips.

Motioning for everyone to walk into the house ahead of us, I held back Bella and whispered to her when the others were out of earshot, "Who invited them?"

"I thought you did," she whispered back.

"Then I guess they invited themselves," I chuckled quietly, "I was kinda hoping we could do this on our own, get a feeling of the house without outside influence."

"Just let them go do their thing, we don't have to walk from room to room with them. We can do our own exploring." Bella took a hold of my arm and snuggled up to me as we walked in the opposite direction to everyone else.

The first room we came to was a massive kitchen with a fireplace situated in the middle of the room. Bella walked over to the fridge while I checked out the fireplace. "Holy shit!" I heard her exclaim.

Turning around I didn't see her and felt my heart skip a beat in fear. "Bella!" I had gone from admiring the kitchen to panicking in one second flat.

"Edward, you have to see this," I heard from behind me and spun around so fast I almost tripped over my own feet. Bella's head was sort of floating in the door of the fridge, I couldn't see the rest of her. I must've had a strange look on my face because Bella burst out laughing and literally walked out of the fridge.

"Wh...how?" I stuttered. _How had she managed that? _"How do you fit into the fridge?" I asked incredulously.

"I told you there was something you had to see," she laughed at me. Tugging on my arm, she smiled widely at me and pulled me towards the fridge.

To say I was skeptical about the shiny metal doors would have been an understatement. Opening the fridge, Bella simply stepped inside. As she moved out of my sight I could see that _it was a fucking walk-in fridge!_

"Oh..." All words had left my mind, I had never seen anything like this before.

"I know this house is out of our price range, but I want a fridge like this in our house."

I looked around inside the fridge and maybe it wasn't the best place to do it, but I had to tell her. "About that, Bella," I started as she turned around and looked at me expectantly. "I..." I started, but wasn't sure how to continue. How did I tell her? Taking a deep breath, I decided to just say it. "We can afford this house if we want it." Still looking at her, I waited for her reaction.

Bella sighed and walked up to me. "Edward, I've seen how much you make. This is out of our price range. We would need to be making three times as much as we do to consider something on this scale."

Shaking my head I took hold of both her hands. "I know I never mentioned this before, but I have money. More than enough." Bella continued to stare at me, apparently not connecting the dots. "My grandparents left half their fortune to me and the other half to my parents when they passed away a few years ago."

I could almost hear the wheels in Bella's head whirring and clicking into place as she realized what I was saying.

"You're joking, right?" Bella asked me incredulously. "Well, I won't take advantage of you like this," she said while shaking her head. "It just wouldn't be right for you having to take on this kind of expense."

"Bella," I sighed, "it isn't taking advantage of me if I'm offering. I want to do this. For you, for the baby, for me. For us."

Bella put her hand on my cheek and gave me a radiant smile. "I'm going to be selfish enough to say thank you, Edward. But," she paused and cocked her head, "so far we've only seen the kitchen and this incredible fridge. Let's explore the rest of the house first. Okay?"

"Okay." I turned my head slightly and kissed the inside of Bella's hand that was still on my cheek.

We walked hand in hand from room to room. From Bella's excitement I could tell she was falling more and more in love with the house. Watching her excitement, I couldn't help but fall more and more in love with Bella.

On second floor we had found several good sized bedrooms. Plenty of room for kids and guests. Each bedroom had its own adjoined bathroom, much to Bella's excitement. Walking up to the third floor we were met with a sitting room slash library. It was huge. Nearly all walls were covered with bookshelves and by the windows on the far wall there was enough room for my baby grand.

On the opposite wall of the windows was what appeared to be the only door on this floor. Bella let go of my hand and opened the door. "Holy shit!" she exclaimed as she stepped through the door.

Walking quickly over to the other room I quickly saw what had Bella so excited.

**BPOV**

The moment I saw the library, I fell in love with it. I could see myself using it for my home office. I wasn't sure which bedroom to use for master bedroom. None of them really stood out. Pondering that, I opened the door in the library. What met me on the other side made me want to jump for joy. "Holy shit!" I nearly yelled and walked into the largest bedroom I had ever seen.

"What?" Edward came running in behind me.

I turned around and looked at him. "I think I want to live here," I said with a huge grin on my face.

Edward looked around what appeared be the master bedroom. "We could probably live out of this room alone. This is huge!" There were two more doors on the other side of the bedroom. Grabbing my hand, Edward pulled me towards one of them. "Wow, this is disappointing," Edward exclaimed as we walked into the en-suite bathroom. The bathroom was small, especially compared to the one at the penthouse.

I looked up at Edward and saw that he looked really disappointed. Sighing, I wrapped my arms around Edward as well as I could with the baby-bump and all. "This bathroom is actually as big as it needs to be," I said and hugged him closer to me, "you have his and hers sinks. So maybe there is only room for one person in the tub, but the shower is big enough for two."

Looking down at me thoughtfully he put one of his arms around me and scratched his cheek with the other. He looked back at the bathroom and nodded his head slowly, as if thinking real hard about it. "I guess you're right. It's only a bathroom, it doesn't have to be huge..."

"You're spoiled with the size of your current bathroom, that's what it's all about," I laughed at Edward and walked back into the bedroom.

"I'm guessing the walk-in closet isn't any bigger," Edward said as he came up behind me.

"We'll figure it out," I shrugged and opened up the other door. The sight that met me, rendered me speechless and unable to move. The room was _massive. _It was like walking into an empty clothes shop. In the middle of the room was a red, round sofa. And sitting on that sofa was what appeared to be an stunned Alice.

She looked up at us and stated, "You're buying this house, I'm moving in with you guys, and I'm never leaving this room." Edward laughed at her, but I knew Alice well enough to know she was being dead serious.

"I think we should go find Jasper," I said quietly to Edward, "he'll be able to get her out of here." He just nodded and we made our way downstairs in search of Jasper.

When we made it to second floor, we heard a desperate "Rosie?" from one of the bedrooms.

"That sounds like Emmett," I said and was about to keep looking for Jasper.

"Rosie? Please! Where are you?" Emmett sounded desperate.

"Em? It's Bella. Where are you?" I called out and went in search for him.

"Bella? Oh thank God. I'm in the bedroom by the stairs." He sounded very relieved.

We went to the appropriate room but didn't see him anywhere. "Emmett?" Edward called out.

"In the bathroom," came a rather sheepish sounding voice close by.

Edward looked at me and I just shrugged, having no idea what was going on. Edward walked over to the bathroom and opened the door that was only half closed. "Oh God! Emmett!" Edward exclaimed and came running out of the bathroom less than 2 seconds after walking in.

"What's wrong?" I asked, walking over to the bathroom, curiosity getting the better of me.

"No!" Edward stopped me before I could even make it to the door.

"What's wrong?" I was starting to get a little worried by now.

"Bella?" Emmett sounded really small and timid. "I...um...I...ah...kinda desperately needed to take a dump. And I...ah...came in here. But problem is...uh...the toilet is broken and there is no toilet paper here."

"And the smell is horrid," Edward supplemented.

The image of Emmett being stuck on the toilet, unable to get off made me laugh so hard I had to sit down on the floor. I was laughing so much tears were running down my face. The volume of my laughter brought the others to the room, all with puzzled looks on their faces. Edward explained the situation to them, making Alice gag and hide her face in Jasper's chest while he laughed at Emmett's predicament.

Rosalie pinched her nose together and walked over to the bathroom with a determined look on her face, making me laugh even more. She came out quickly and took a deep breath. "I guess we should get Em some toilet paper and call a plumber." She sat down next to me and looked at Edward. "I don't know whether the toilet was broken or if Em broke it, but he'll pay to get it fixed regardless," she stated.

"Am I ever going to live this one down?" Emmett asked meekly.

"Oh hell no!" Jasper exclaimed while Edward shook his head.

Finally done laughing I looked Edward. "Do you mind go check the other bathrooms for some paper?" I asked. He came back two minutes later with a roll and handed it to Rosalie without a word. She just sighed and shot Edward a look before getting up off the floor.

"So, while poop-boy fixes his business in there. Let's talk real business out here." Jasper grinned widely as he said that.

"Jasper!" Alice exclaimed and punched him in the chest.

"Ow! What did you do that for?" he asked while rubbing the spot where Alice had hit him.

"Behave," was all she said before turning away.

"Anyway..." Jasper shot Alice a look, but she didn't see it. "Have you guys decided anything about the house yet?" he asked Edward.

"I think we both can say that we like this house. There are certain features that we love and some things that will need improvement. But yeah, I'll be making a call to the Realtor today."

I smiled at Edward, I really could see myself living here. As I pictured what the house would look like with kids running around, I tried to get up off the floor. But before I could even push myself up, Edward was there pulling me up. Back up on my feet again, I hugged Edward tightly. "I guess this is home," I whispered.

"Yes it is, as soon as they accept our offer, this is home."

**A/N: **I told my beta "no rush", yet **Ezzery **had this beta'd and ready to go in only a couple days. You're the best friend a girl can have, bb. :)

**Beautiful Figment**, **VanPireNZ **and **gypsysue **- you girls make me laugh more than I probably should. I love talking to you guys, I always learn something new from you. :*

**Megsly**, **phoenixhunter47**, **BQOTFU**,** nat3200 **- my rockstars! Get to writing, I wanna read next chapters already! ;)

**naelany** - I think we should invest in new coffee IV's... :)

**Dark Absynthe**, **Definitely Staying** - thank you for your sound advise when I was driving myself insane. You helped a girl more than you know. :*

To all my Twitter-friends. Thank you for making each and every day so much brighter. ILY!

And to you my reader, thank you for even reading this story to begin with. Only one more chapter to go and an epilogue. :)


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: **I am eternally grateful that you are still reading this. I know it took me forever to get to this point, but after this, there will be no more waiting. I give you the final chapter of Magnetism, and I'll see you at the bottom. _I hope I don't disappoint you. ;)_

**Disclaimer: **SMeyer is the owner of these characters.

_Some weeks later_

**EPOV**

I had promised my parents months ago that I would bring Bella by for dinner. Esme called me two days ago, reminding me of my promise. So here we were, in the car on our way to my parents' house in the Pacific Palisades, and my nerves were starting to get the better of me.

Checking the time I noticed that we were a bit early. Without a conscious thought, I took a small detour; something Bella noticed right away. "Um...Edward? Aren't we going the wrong way?"

"Yeah, I just want to do something before we head up to the Palisades." I stole a glance at Bella as an idea took form in my mind. I drove away from Santa Monica Pier, towards the end of Venice Beach, and lucked out. There was a parking spot on the street, not far from the beach itself.

Bella was due any day now, just getting up and sitting down was a struggle for her, so I walked around the car and opened the passenger door, helping Bella out. She scowled at me slightly, never liking the idea of someone helping her.

"What are we doing here? We're supposed to be at your parents' in a few minutes," Bella groaned.

"We're just making a quick pit stop," I replied, steadying her.

"Edward, your parents already have a bad impression of me, being late to the first visit, is not going to help."

"Don't worry about it, Bella. Give them a chance to get to know you, you'll win them over in a heartbeat." I put my hand in my pocket and felt the warm metal there. I always carried it with me, waiting for the right moment, and now the right moment had arrived. Holding firmly onto Bella, I led her to an empty spot on the beach. Seeing how late it was in the day, Venice Beach was mostly deserted.

When we were almost all the way down by the waterline, we stopped and just looked out at the ocean and the sun that was setting. "I need to sit down," Bella groaned after a couple minutes, "my back has been killing me all day and standing up is too painful."

I helped Bella down on the sand as I tried to hide my smirk. She was making this really easy for me. I stayed on one knee after Bella was comfortable. Glancing at the sunset, I took a deep breath and turned back to the very pregnant woman who had come into my life and taken over so completely. "Bella?" I began.

She looked away from the sunset she had been admiring and turned to look at me. Bella put her hand gently on my cheek, probably sensing my nerves. "Edward? Are you all right?"

"I..." I croaked out and paused to clear my throat. Holding onto her hand that was on my cheek, I started over; "I had a huge speech rehearsed months ago, but I realized that huge speeches and huge gestures aren't your thing, so I've just been waiting for the right moment." I could see Bella's eyes grow huge at that, she knew what I was doing. Turning my head slightly, I kissed the inside of her hand. "Bella, will you marry me?"

I was holding the ring in a tight fist, and when Bella finally nodded her yes, I loosened my hand and found hers. As I slipped the ring on her finger, I kissed her with everything I had. Wrapping her arms around my neck, Bella pulled away from the kiss and looked me in the eyes. "I thought you'd never ask," she whispered with a wicked glint in her eyes before she kissed me.

With a groan I pulled Bella closer to me as we were making out like a couple teenagers on the beach. She had been waiting for me to ask her. I wanted to kick myself for not asking her sooner, but at the same time I knew I had been waiting for the right moment. And today was the right moment, so I couldn't regret that.

I half pulled Bella up on my lap while we kissed, and hiked up her mommy-dress past her knees. "Are you comfortable?" I asked as I let my hand wander from her knee and up her smooth thigh.

"Uh-huh," Bella confirmed as she deepened the kiss. I felt her hands snake around the back of my neck and into my hair, making me groan with want and anticipation. Bella's pregnancy had worked wonders for our sex life. She had gone from withholding in the beginning, to being completely insatiable.

When my hand reached her ass, that now was wonderfully big and soft, I let me fingers slide underneath the elastic and squeezed, making Bella moan loudly into my mouth. Parting her legs slightly to allow me more access to her slick folds, I practically dove right in making Bella squirm in my lap. Never stopping kissing her, I let two digits pump quickly in and out of her while I used my thumb on her clit, knowing how sensitive she was that she would be coming in a matter of minutes. I was not disappointed as Bella tensed and groaned loudly into my mouth.

Pulling away from my lips, Bella rested her forehead on my shoulder while she breathed heavily. "God, Edward. That has to be a new record for me," she whispered right before she went rigid and groaned loudly.

Looking at her, I saw that she was on the verge of tears, which pulled me out of my happy place and made me panic. "Bella? Are you all right? What's wrong?" I shot the questions at her, never giving her a chance to reply.

Bella's eyes flowed over with her tears as she laughed. "Here is this perfect moment, I'm perfectly happy and more relaxed than I have been in months. And in this perfect moment, my water has to break."

It took a few moments for Bella's words to reach my brain; "Shit! Your water broke?"

"Edward, honey. My dress is soaked and so are your pants," she laughed at me before she tried to sit up while I looked around frantically, my car wasn't too far away. "Bella? I want you to call the hospital and tell them we're on our way while I carry you," I told her as I pulled out my cellphone.

"Don't be stupid, Edward, I'm much too heavy to be carried around. I'm capable of walking on my own." Not wanting to argue with Bella and upset her, I put the phone back in my pocket and bent down to help her up from the sand. "Ungh!" Bella exclaimed as she tried to stand up, clearly in pain. Not wanting to drag this out with any discussions, I simply pulled Bella into my arms and carried her towards the car.

The next several hours went by in a blur. I called Carlisle first to tell him that dinner was off. I was sure I'd soon see both my parents at the hospital. Then I called Alice to tell her to bring Bella's hospital-bag and to tell the others that we were having a baby.

Our daughter came into the world quickly, so quickly in fact that there hadn't been any time for any drugs. She was a skinny but long baby, and loud from the very minute she was born. The nurse laughed and told us she was going to be more than a handful.

Usually babies are born with nearly black eyes, but our girl had my green eyes. My eyes and Bella's dark hair. After our baby girl had been washed and powdered and dressed, the nurses handed her over to Bella. "Look what we did," she whispered as she looked at the tiny thing in her arms. The doctor and the nurses left us alone for a few minutes and I just enjoyed the quiet and the feeling of complete happiness. I knew in my heart that it didn't get much better than this very moment.

When we got to Bella's room, everyone piled in to say hello to the newcomer. As I had guessed, my parents had made it to the hospital shortly after I had called them. Being first time grand-parents, they wanted to be where the action was. Esme walked quietly around the bed to my side and looked at the baby with so much love I felt guilty for not involving my parents more in my life since we had found out Bella was pregnant.

Bella smiled at me and lifted her arms slightly, signaling for me to take the baby. As I bent down to lift our little daughter out of Bella's arms, she looked pointedly at Esme before looking back at me. I immediately understood what she meant. Turning slowly towards my mom, I saw that she had an expression of wonder when she looked at this featherlight baby in my arms.

"You want to hold her?"

Esme just nodded and stretched out her arms. Her eyes filled with tears as she held the baby. Carlisle came up to us and put his arm around Esme, together they stood and silently admired their grandchild. I sat down on Bella's bed and took a hold of her hand while she talked to Jasper and Emmett. Alice and Rosalie were hoovering around Esme and the baby, unable to stay away.

Suddenly Alice turned to Bella and me. "What are you calling her? Did you choose a name yet? You better not be keeping it a secret if you have." She shot out her questions, making Bella giggle.

I looked at Bella, she just lifted her eyebrow and shrugged. I cleared my throat to get everyone's attention. "We have decided on a name. We did a while ago, and after meeting her today, we know for sure that she is Iris Swan Cullen," I said and looked over at Bella when I said our daughter's full name.

**BPOV**

_2 months later_

I took a sip of my herbal tea with a sigh while watching Edward enjoying his morning coffee. I was so jealous of him being able to drink caffeine I hated him just a little bit for that. I was about ready to kill for some coffee. Iris turned out to be a bit of a handful and kept me up most nights. Edward was good at helping me with her during the nights, but it was just me and Iris during the days, and her crying wasn't much better then.

Putting my mug down and felt a pang of guilt for my caffeine withdrawal hate. Edward was more than amazing; with me, Iris and work. He was pulling more than his share of the load. He'd done most of the work, putting together the move to our new house, together with Emmett, Jasper and the moving company he had done the heavy lifting while I just stood around telling everyone where I wanted everything to go.

Alice had taken it upon herself to design the baby room and she had dragged Rosalie into it. They were finally done deciding what they wanted the room to look like, and I had no say in it. It was their present to Iris. They were coming over later with their boys to do the actual decorating. Edward had taken the day off of work to help.

Things had finally calmed down in all our lives. Even if Rose and Emmett's marriage had started off as a drunken mistake of sorts, they were happy together. Every day with them was entertaining, both were strong willed and stubborn, and it was a constant fight for dominance. More often than not, Rosalie came out on top; which didn't really surprise me. One look from her reduced Emmett to a drooling lapdog.

Seeing Iris for the first time at the hospital eight weeks ago, had inspired Emmett and Rosalie to try for a baby. Apparently Emmett's little swimmers were very focused cause they hit a home run on practically the first try. Rosalie was about six or seven weeks along and Emmett was walking around, very proud of himself. You'd think he'd come up with the solution to world peace.

It had taken her a while, but Alice had embraced the idea of being engaged to a heartthrob and was busy planning what she had dubbed as 'the wedding of the century'. She kept nagging me and Edward about getting married as well, but we had talked about it and were happy with just being engaged for now. Alice was more than happy to show off her engagement ring to everyone she ran into; be it friends, family or paparazzi. The paps were more than happy to snap pictures of Alice and Jasper, their engagement was plastered all over the tabloids, and Alice basked in all the extra attention she was getting.

"You all right, Bella?" Edward's question pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah, just thinking about how much has happened since our supposed one night stand." I couldn't stop my grin even if I wanted to, making Edward laugh out loud. "Shh... You'll wake Iris up," I whispered sternly at Edward while listening to see if she was still asleep. We had a crib for her in the kitchen. I was a little paranoid about leaving her alone too far away from me, much to Edward's amusement.

"Relax, Bella. Iris is just fine," Edward said as he leaned across the table and grabbed my hand.

"I know," I sighed, "I'm just exhausted from her crying all night." I squeezed Edward's hand and glanced at the crib. It had been a _really _tough night. Edward let go of my hand and came walking around the table, lifted me up off my chair and sat down with me in his lap. I nuzzled into him and sighed contently.

"Bella, maybe we should get a nanny for Iris. Someone who can help either during the night or during the day. What do you think?"

I thought about it for all of five seconds. "Oh god, that would be so perfect." The thought of getting some help made me smile; I loved Iris and wanted to wrap her up in cotton and bubble wrap to protect her from everything, but I was in over my head. Normally I hated to admit defeat, but I was so exhausted that I simply didn't care. I wanted some help.

"Great, I'll look into agencies and start the process," he whispered into my hair. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling of Edward's arms around me. We never got much time together anymore, just the two of us. We hadn't been intimate since Iris had been born; it was tough going from getting laid on a daily basis to absolutely nothing for two months. Frustrated didn't even begin to describe how I felt about my sex life, or lack thereof.

Someone slammed open the door, and we heard Emmett yell, "We're here!" It took no more than half a second before Iris was crying in her crib, torn out of her sleep.

"Emmett! The hell?" I yelled back at him as I got up and ran to Iris. Even after I picked her up, she wouldn't calm down. Edward sent Emmett a murderous look and reached out his arms for Iris. I hated to let go of her when she was so distraught, but knew I couldn't hog her. She calmed down almost right away in Edward's arms, making me feel like a failure. Edward just looked at me and shrugged, pretty proud of his calming abilities.

Once he was sure Iris was calm, Edward handed her over to Rosalie and grabbed a few beers from the fridge and followed Emmett and Jasper up to Iris' bedroom to set up her new furniture. Seeing as Iris was calm in Rosalie's arms, I put the kettle on and made tea for us girls.

"She's so beautiful," Rosalie sighed, looking down at Iris.

Alice, who was hanging over Rosalie's shoulder just hummed in agreement. Looking at the two of them so completely taken with Iris, I knew I was beyond lucky to have them in my life. I still didn't always get along with Rose, but we were getting better at being friends. It was new to both of us.

A loud crash from upstairs pulled me out of my thoughts. Rose looked up at me in alarm. "If Emmett wrecked anything, he's replacing it," she grumbled as we all made our way up the stairs. The sight that met us in Iris' room had us laughing. Jasper was holding onto what looked like some parts of the new crib while he was laughing at Emmett who was sitting on the floor, holding onto his foot. Edward was on his knees in front of Emmett and mid-apology when he saw us.

"What the hell happened?" Alice asked.

"This moron here," Emmett said and pointed to Edward, "was supposed to help that moron over there," he said, now pointing to Jasper, "only he didn't grab the bottom of the crib in time and they broke my toes." Emmett's bottom lip was sticking so far out, it looked more like a sulk than a pout.

Rosalie handed Iris over to me and bent down to Emmett's foot. She grabbed his toes and gave them a good squeeze, making him scream for dear life. Which again made Iris cry again. "Oh for fucks' sake, shut the hell up, you big oaf. You're scaring Iris." Rosalie had no mercy for Emmett.

"Sorry," Emmett whispered while giving me an apologetic look. "But woman, your grip busted my toes!"

"There's nothing wrong with your toes. Get off your ass, we don't have time for your bruised ego."

Emmett got up off the floor with a groan and hopped around on his so-called good foot. Rosalie rolled her eyes and looked at me and Alice. "Ladies? Shall we?" Understanding what she was getting at, we just nodded at her. "Edward, take Iris, please," Rosalie commanded.

Alice took the parts Jasper was holding and we all took a quick inventory of what was scattered around the room. Without even looking at each other, we started to assemble the crib and were done in less than ten minutes.

As Rosalie was checking the crib and making sure it was safe, I walked over to Edward and Iris. His dumbstruck look made me giggle, and I couldn't resist a jib. "Close your mouth, honey, makes you look stupid." At which Edward snapped his mouth shut. I just took Iris from his arms and placed her in her new bed.

Iris seemed happy in her new crib so we started putting together the rest of the baby furniture. The boys were our reluctant little helpers. Being emasculated by three women put a damper on their moods. Emmett was all over Rosalie, refusing to let her do anything that required any lifting.

"I'm pregnant, you idiot, not an invalid!" Rose snapped after Emmett took the screwdriver away from her.

"Oh come on, Rosie! I just don't want anything to happy to our little boy!" Emmett protested.

"We're having a girl, just because you're an imbecile!"

Emmett stopped dead in his track at Rosalie's words. "You can do that? You can decide the baby's sex?"

"Yes, when the sperm donor is an idiot, I can." Rosalie was barely able to hold her smile back. When Emmett seemed to think really hard about that 'fact', the rest of us burst out laughing making Emmett blush.

"I knew you were jibbing," he defended himself. "Hey, at least my little boys managed to knock Rosalie up on first try!" he bragged.

"Yeah, like that's a feat," Edward said and pointed to the crib where Iris was sound asleep.

"Oh right," Emmett said sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "But still..." Emmett's grin was wide and showcased the dimples that never failed to make girls swoon.

The rest of the day and evening passed in very much the same manner. Everyone was in a good mood after Rosalie's little stab at Emmett. We found out that Jasper had proposed to Alice and asked her to be his wife because she wanted to not because their little indiscretion had forced them to. He had even gone out and bought her a new engagement ring, and Alice was proudly showing off her new rock.

**EPOV**

The day had gone well and ended on a good note. Everyone went home in good spirits and Iris was finally sleeping in her own bed. I knew Bella was really nervous about leaving Iris alone to sleep in her own room, but we had the baby monitor on, and it was nice to have the bed to ourselves again. Looking at how she was fidgeting, I decided to offer up some distraction to stop her worrying so much.

I wrapped my arm around Bella and pulled her closer to me, who nuzzled into me and sighed. I scooted down a bit and started to kiss her face; eyebrows, down to her cheekbones, nose, chin. But Bella obviously wasn't paying attention to my kisses. "What if Iris wakes up and cries, and we don't hear her?"

I held back my sigh and pulled my head away from Bella and looked down on her. "Bella, we tested the baby monitors, we know they work. We'll hear Iris even if all she does is gurgle." Her worry was both adorable and exasperating at the same time.

"I know, but..." I cut her off by kissing Bella on the mouth, who moaned and opened up her mouth, letting in my demanding tongue. Finally I had her attention. I let my hands wander across her body, to my delight she was still carrying a bit of her baby weight, making her soft and curvy in all the right places. Bella had been an knockout before she had gotten pregnant, but now she was a curvy and gorgeous woman. More perfect than she had ever been.

Pulling away a little from the kiss, Bella looked me in the eyes. "You're really good at distracting me." She let her fingers trace my eyebrows and nose before leaning in and giving me a quick kiss. "Thank you for being you, thank you for loving me," she whispered and leaned her forehead to mine.

"Oh Bella, I'm the one who should be thanking you. Sometimes I still can't believe that you're mine. I can't believe you chose me." I hugged her tightly to me. "You've made me completely happy."

I had tried to distract Bella with sex, but instead she ended up distracting me with her declaration of love. We ended up just cuddling in bed and talking about everything that had happened to us this past year. We talked about our friends, and we talked about work. Bella wasn't ready to go back to work full time yet, not with Iris being so small and dependent on her. But she felt the time was right for her to do some light work from home. Our businesses were going to go through some changes, we wanted to pool our resources and work together.

Bella fell asleep mid-sentence, and I couldn't help but grin at her. I watched her as her breathing slowed down. I really couldn't believe my luck, she was mine to keep, mine to love, mine to grow old with. I swallowed down the lump that had suddenly grown in my throat. I kissed her forehead softly and let my hand brush her tummy under the covers. Some times it was surreal to think that Iris had been in there just a couple short months ago. I let my fingers follow the tiny stretchmarks there. They were proof of the miracle we had created together, and I loved every single one of them.

With my fingers still touching the marks, a smile on my face and love in my heart, I fell asleep.

Fin

**A/N: **This story took me absolutely forever to write, it was partly due to real life and partly due to writer's block. But. Magnetism is complete. Yeah, I did a happy dance for real when I realized that. :D But I still might have a surprise up the sleeve for ya. I can't tell you what or when or why - but leave Magnetism on your alerts if you want to find out.

Getting to this point, took a lot of encouragement from quite a few people. I want to say thank you to Zigster, BeautifulFigment, VanPireNZ and GypsySue for being in my corner and for cheering me on when I was sure I couldn't complete this story. I want to say thank you to Ezzery for helping me figuring out the finer details of the story when I had no clue what to write next. I want to say thank you to to everyone who has been with me along the way; BQOTFU, Megsly, Nat3200, Monksmama, and anyone else I might have forgotten to mention. I didn't mean to, but you know my memory sucks major ass...

I feel like I'm saying goodbye. Which I'm absolutely not. But I have to say that it feels good to wrap this story up. I am eternally grateful to every single one of my readers, even if most of you don't leave reviews. ;) But seeing that people read this, really makes me smile. And that's what it's all about at the end of the day. Thank you to everyone who stuck with me even if writing this story took insanely long time.

GypsySue is a doll for stepping in as my beta.

I want to dedicate this to Ezzery, who is taking blow after blow from life, and who continues to rise up and refuses to let life's shitty sense of humor to knock her down. I wish I had half your strength, babe.


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